Devil Bringer (Sequel to Call Me V)
by MetaCrisisDR
Summary: V has had a pretty...interesting first year at Beacon so far, from killing large Grimm to foiling a Dust heist by Roman Torchwick and the White Fang. Things couldn't possibly get crazier, right? Right? Disclaimer: I don't own DMC or RWBY. But you knew that. Sequel to Call Me V (but you knew that)
1. Chapter 1: Best Day Ever(?)

**Hello, hello! Good to see you all again!Although if it's not "again" than you probably haven't read the first book in this series "Call Me V," in which case: What are you doing here? It's not good to read the sequel first!**

**Anyway, sorry for the delay. I got a PS4 for my birthday and I've been playing Infamous: Second Son and Bloodborne nonstop (not DMC 5 tho cause I'm broke). And I got my wisdom teeth removed. I'll try to update this often as possible, but I might not have a consistent schedule like I did for the first book. Nonetheless, don't worry about this series ending any time soon.**

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

The first semester at Beacon Academy was finally over, a fact V was mostly happy about. Midterms didn't make life better, but at least they were done now.

Currently, Team RWBY was sitting together at their same lunch table with V. Ruby, however, was missing, so Weiss, Blake, and Yang sat across the table from V.

V looked across the table to see Blake's book. It seemed she had some sketches and notes within, but rather than being school work, it looked like there was a drawing of the White Fang logo with assorted images, including the view of a strange figure from behind.

"Watcha doin'?" Yang suddenly looked over Blake's shoulder. The Faunus jumped a bit in surprise and snapped the book shut.

"Nothing, just reviewing notes from last semester," Blake lied.

"Boooring!" Yang drawled as she caught a grape in her mouth. V looked across his right shoulder toward the other end of the cafeteria to find Nora throwing food for Yang to catch and eat. With a shake of his head, he turned back and opened his book to read.

He was interrupted as Ruby appeared, heaving and slamming a giant binder on the table, making him jump a little in surprise. It had the title "Vytal Festival Activities, Property of Weiss Schnee." However, the title was clearly crossed out hastily with a red marker pen, and with the same color, "Best Day Ever Activities," was scrawled underneath.

Ruby cleared her throat, gesturing to the table members, "Friends, Sisters...Weiss."

"Hey!" the mentioned girl protested.

"Four score and seven minutes ago, I had a dream!"

"Ruby, you haven't been alive for eighty years," V inputted humorously.

"Hey, it's a figure of speech!" she protested before clearing her throat and starting again, "I had a dream, that we will come together as a team and have the most fun anyone had ever had, ever!"

"Is...that my binder?" Weiss inquired, looking at the cover.

"I'm not a crook!" Ruby declared, making peace signs with her hands.

"What does all of this mean, anyways?" V inquired.

"I'm talking about kicking off our semester with a bang!" Ruby pointed to V.

"Well I always like to kick of my semester with a Yang!" Yang joked. V groaned at the terrible pun while Nora booed Yang and chucked an apple at her.

"Look guys, it's been a good two weeks and between more exchange students arriving and the tournament at the end of the year, our second semester is going to be great! But, classes start back up tomorrow! Which is why I've taken the time to schedule a series of wonderful events for us today."

As Ruby talked about her plan, Yang chuckled her apple back at Nora.

"I don't know. I think I might sit this one out," Blake replied.

"Sit out or not, I think that however we spend this last day, we should do it as a team," Weiss said, "I for one think that..."

***SPLAT!***

**ゴ**

**ゴ**

**ゴ**

**ゴ**

**ゴ**

**ゴ**

The members of Team RWBY looked to V to find a pie splattered on the back of his head and dripping onto his uniform. Everyone in the cafeteria fell silent as he slowly turned around to look at Nora from across the room. She immediately hid behind Ren, who simply face-palmed.

"Okay then...if that's how it's going to be...V said menacingly as he stood up.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

"Man, that's harsh."

Outside the cafeteria, Sun was walking with another teen, Neptune. He had blue hair, a pair of goggles with yellow lenses on his forehead, and wore a maroon sweater with a white shirt underneath and grey jeans.

"I know!" Sun exclaimed, "We were fighting side by side while V had his giant creature thingy and was going ham on the other dudes. Blake and I kept beating on that Torchwick dude and she was super fast and I threw a banana at the guy, which sounds gross, but it was awesome!"

"Nice!" Neptune replied.

"Right? And the best part is, she's a Faunus. But that's a secret, okay?"

"Got it," the blue hair teen affirmed.

Sun leaned in close to Neptune, "And not a, "I'm gonna go tell Scarlet the second Sun turns his back secret", I'm talking secret secret."

"Whoa, chill out, man, okay? I got it, I got it!"

"You better," Sun pointed at him before they began to walk again, "I just don't want to screw this up, you know? The people here are the coolest! No offense to you guys."

"None taken."

"They're just in here. I'm really excited for you to meet them. So be cool, okay? You're gonna be cool, right?"

"Dude," Neptune struck a pose with a smile with his teeth gleaming in the sunlight.

"Good point," Sun opened the doors as they got to the front of the cafeteria, finding a stampede of students running toward the exit.

"Food fight!" many of them cried out as the escaped out of the building. Neptune looked in concern before a bellowing laughter filled the room.

Team JNPR was standing opposite Sun and Neptune at the other end of the hall. They had multiple tables stacked haphazardly, with Nora standing atop them and her three teammates on other places on and around the structure.

"I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!" sang the ginger. Opposite the maniacal girl, Ruby stood atop a lunch table and stomped her foot on determination, leveling a glare and a menacing finger-point at the other team.

"Justice will be swift! Justice will be painful!" Ruby declared, crushing cartoon of milk in her hand, "It will be delicious!"

"Yeah!" her team cheered behind her. V simply continued to glare at JNPR, summoning Griffon.

"Off with their heads!" Nora ordered, jumping down from the top of her tower, starting the food fight. JNPR opened up by launching a barrage of watermelons at RWBY

"Yang! Turkey!" Ruby called to her sister.

Yang rolled over to two turkeys and stuck her fists inside them, proceeding to block and punch melons launched by JNPR.

Nora ended up grabbing a pole off the wall and slamming it into a watermelon, making a makeshift hammer. In response, Weiss grabbed a swordfish off the ground, weilding it like her rapier and dashing forward and knocking the girl back. The Queen was not shaken, however, and charged for a counterattack. Weiss was immediately put on the defensive as she parried the Melon Masher's blows, but her wielding of the Swordfish couldn't keep up and she was struck hard and sent flying back into a pillar. The impact knocked her out and Ruby held her in her arms as the pillar collapsed around them.

"Weiss, Weiss! Don't leave me! Nooo!"

Meanwhile, V formulated a simple strategy. He swiftly prepped a couple of soda cans with mentos, handing them off to Griffon who flew across the hall, dropping them on JNPR and shouting, "BOMBS AWAY!"

Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren avoided the explosive bottles, but Jaune was unlucky and got splattered by carbonated liquid.

Yang ran up to attack the enemy directly, but was swiftly stuck under the chin by Nora, sending her flying upwards and out of the hall through the roof at the cost of Nora's hammer breaking.

Blake flipped backwards and grabbed a long link of sausages, wielding it as though it were a whip to send a now defenseless Nora flying back into a couple of soda vending machines.

Ren then charged at Blake and V who both grabbed baguettes to deflect his leeks. Blake and Ren traded a few blows before V threw his loaf at Ren, teleporting up and slamming him backwards with a second strike of his improvised weapon.

Unexpectedly, Pyrrha used her Semblance to take all the soda cans out of their vending machines, sending a never ending barrage of them towards the three surviving members of RWBY.

"Oh shit!" Griffon shouted, quickly diving down and flying V out of the zone of danger, only to be pegged by a watermelon tossed by Nora and sending the duo crashing into a table, effectively putting them out of the fight. Blake was unfortunately slammed back against the far wall by the barrage. Ruby was now the only one left standing from her team.

In a last ditch effort, she used her Semblance and ran forward as fast as she could. A vortex formed around her, picking up all the accumulated food and drinks strewn about the room and running past JNPR, causing them to be sucked in too. Ruby stopped just before she would hit the wall, the force of the wind behind her cracking it. JNPR slammed against the wall and were painted with soda and food while Ruby leapt out of the way. Soon after Ruby landed with one knee to the floor. , they comically slid off the wall, leaving only their outlines on the surface.

"Superhero landing, woooooo!" Griffon cheered at Ruby's posing in slurred speech, still recovering from the fall with V.

"I love these guys," Sun commented. Neptune, on the other hand, was nonplused as he was drenched head-to-toe in soda. Immediately after the resolution, Glynda burst into the hall, waving her riding crop to telekinetically restore the room to its former state.

"Children, please," Glynda scolded the recovered teams, adjusting her glasses, "Do not play with your food!".

Nora burped aloud in response. Teams JNPR and RWBY tried and failed to compose themselves. Suddenly, a screaming Yang crashed through the ceiling into one of the tables. The others looked at her as she sat up, and they all burst into laughter. Glynda grumbled at their attitude.

"Mister V!" another voice called from the entrance. Everyone looked back to see Ozpin standing in the doorway.

"I didn't start this—" V claimed.

Ozpin chuckled, "I wasn't going to assign blame. I simply request that you clean yourself up and meet me in my office. There is someone who would like to meet you. I'll see you then."

Ozpin turned around and left, followed by Glynda. V raised an eyebrow as the others looked at him quizzically.

"Who do you think it is?" Ruby asked.

"I haven't the faintest idea..." V stroked his chin in thought.

"Well, I don't think it's a good idea to keep them waiting," Weiss pointed out. V nodded and grabbed his cane from where he dropped it before the fight, walking out the doors after Ozpin and giving a nod of acknowledgement to Sun and Neptune on the way out.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

The doors of the elevator opened to Ozpin's office. V stepped in and glanced around, finding three occupants: Ozpin, Goodwitch, and an unknown third individual.

"Ah, good to see you've arrived, V," Ozpin began. The third person in the room turned around to face V.

He wore a long, dark blue coat with a red inner lining and a brown harness. Under the coat he had a red zip-up hoodie/vest with two zippers, and there was a black shirt beneath that. On his left wrist, he wore a red wristband held in place with a small brown belt. His legwear consisted of a pair of blue pants held up by a belt with a rose buckle. Over his pants, he wore brown thigh straps with a small belts in them. He also had brown boots that came halfway up his shins. In addition, he wore a silver ring with a rose design. An oddly shaped sword was sheathed on his back, and a revolver was holstered by his hip. His right arm was in a sling.

His most distinctive physical feature, however, was his stark white hair brushed down over his blue eyes.

"I'd like you to meet your new teammate," Ozpin said.

The white haired boy extended his left hand.

"I'm Nero. Nice to meet you."


	2. Chapter 2: Adjusting

**Sorry for the delay of this chapter. Probably the biggest problem to get through before we start to get to the good stuff in this series. Also, I was busy because I finally got DMC 5 and I cant stop to playing it.**

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_Excerpt of a report on Dante Redgrave:_

_Arguably the strongest hunter of our day. Dante Redgrave is noted for being the only person to attend Beacon as a solo student. Despite this, he has shown great success in his missions despite a general lack of care for schoolwork. He managed to triumph over Team STRQ in his last three years at Beacon in the finals of the Vytal Festival. Not much is known about his past life before his attending the Academy._

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

CAW! CAW! CAW! CAW! CAW! CAW!

Nero shot bolt upright in his bed and smacked the loud object next to him, which unlike an alarm clock, shouted, "FUCK!"

The new student shook his head and looked around, remembering he just got to Beacon the day before.

What I don't remember, he growled while rubbing the sides of his head, was buying a stupid ass alarm clock.

He glared towards the floor to see V's demon chicken getting up onto its feet while his master also woke up.

"Come on, take a joke asshole!" Griffon seethed at the white haired youth. Nero rolled his eyes and slid off his bed.

"Your bird usually like this?"

"I'm sorry for his uncouth behavior. It can't be helped," V apologized.

"As long as he isn't always out alarm clock, I'll manage."

"Up yours, asshole," Griffon dispersed as Nero threw on his uniform haphazardly, leaving his collar and tie disheveled.

"Now then," V picked up his book, "I suppose we could head to breakfast since we don't have classes today. I'll introduce you to my friends."

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

"What's with the sling? Why's your hair white? Do you like pancakes or waffles more? What's your weapon? Oooooooh, maybe it's a cool hammer or something!" Nora was barraging Nero with questions. Team RWBY had yet to arrive, but JNPR was already at their usual table. V had taken the liberty of having Nero introduce himself. Unfortunately, the hammer-wielding ginger immediately wanted to know everything about him.

"Nora, please, I think you might be annoying him," Ren warned her as Nero glared across the table.

"Hehe...sorry," she sheepishly apologized before devouring her pancakes at a speed that surprised the white-haired newcomer.

"Is she always this hyperactive?" he whispered aside to V.

"No. Sometimes she's worse," V chuckled to the groaning of his new teammate.

"Oh hey, V! What's up?" Yang ask as she and the rest of Team RWBY walked up with their trays.

"Good morning Yang. I'd like you to meet my new teammate, Nero," the black haired youth clapped said person on the shoulder.

Nero broke out into a wide grin, "Long time, no see, Xiao Long."

"Oh boy, this'll be good," Yang chuckled at seeing him, looking down to her little sister who had just caught up to the group.

"Hey, why aren't we sitting—" the red head began before her eyes landed on Nero. She suddenly bolted across the table and tackled him with a hug.

"NERO! It's so good to see you!" she squealed while everyone around them started at her in amusement and confusion. Ruby realized she was now lying on top of Nero as he was sprawled on his back. Her cheeks flushed as she shot up and helped up the fallen boy.

"I see your as energetic as ever, Little Rose," he ruffled her hair, further embarrassing the girl.

"Wait, what's happening here?" Weiss asked, thoroughly confused.

"This is Nero. He used to be friends with Ruby and I a while back before he had to move away," Yang explained before leaning towards Weiss and Blake and whispering, "Also, Ruby will never admit this, but she has a maaaaaajor crush on him."

Blake merely hummed in understanding and sat down, while Weiss resolved, "Well, as Ruby's partner, I will have to make sure that this man is of the right character to be dating her!"

"That's an odd amount of sentiment from you, Ice Queen," V commented as Nero and Ruby remained unaware of their conversation.

"So, I guess you must have a pretty cool weapon?" Ruby asked, "Can I see it? Is it a scythe like mine?"

"First time you've seen me in years and that's your first question? I knew you were obsessed with weapons, but still," Nero chuckled at Ruby's interest, "I have two that I think you'll like, but neither is like yours. I'll give you a demonstration later."

Ruby's eyes sparkled as she jumped up and down in excitement, making Yang reach across the table and hold her on the ground by the shoulder, saying, "Calm down sis! You keep jumping like that and you'll cause an earthquake!"

Ruby simmered one as she and Nero took their seats next to each other at the table.

"So, who exactly are you, Nero? Where are you from, and why should I trust you with my teammate?" Weiss leveled am accusing finger at the teen to everyone's surprise.

"Uh..." Nero was surprised by her sudden interrogation, "Well, I'm from Patch. Lived there for most of my childhood but some...problems came up and I had to move to Argus. I guess you can trust me cause I was Ruby's friend?"

"Wait, why Argus?" Yang asked, "You know you could have always stayed with us after...ya know..."

"Apparently it was for 'my own safety,'" Nero made air quotes, "if you ask me, it's all bullsh—" he began before glancing sideways to Ruby and stopping himself which made V raise an eyebrow in amusement.

"Swear jar," she said.

"Come on, I didn't even say the whole thing!" Nero said exasperatedly.

"Doesn't matter! You were going to say it and now you have to pay up!" she grinned victoriously. Nero grumbled a bit at the claim, but nonetheless, he withdrew 5 lien and placed it in Ruby's outstretched palm.

"Thank you!~"

"Hmph."

"'Swear Jar?'" Jaune asked.

"It's something I set up. Before Nero moved, he began to have a bit of an issue cursing. Maybe he thought it sounded cool, but I didn't want him to say them around Ruby and corrupt her ears."

"I still hate you for this, Yangarang," Nero pointed at the blonde brawler to which she simply smirked slyly.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

Later, the group found themselves in the library. V (with Griffon perched on his cane next to him), Yang, and Blake sat around a table with Nero and Ruby sitting next to each other opposite Yang. The group was playing...

**REMNANT: THE GAME!**

"Hmmmmm..." Ruby examined the cards in her hand before pointing to Yang, "Right...all right! Yang Xiao Long, prepare your kingdom for battle!"

"Bring it on!" her older sister taunted.

"We deploy the Atlesian Air Fleet!" Ruby dramatically declared, causing Yang to feign shock, "Looks like we get to fly right over your Ursai and attack your walls directly!

Yang pointed at her indignantly, "You fiend!"

"And since Atlas is part of Mantle, our repair time is only one turn," Nero gloated. However, he and Ruby became shocked as Yang began laughing.

"Pretty sneaky, young ones, but you have much to learn! You just activated my trap card! Giant Nevermore!" Yang slammed the card on the table, "If I roll a seven or higher, fatal feathers will slice your fleet in two!"

Ruby pointed out, "But, if you roll a six or lower, the Nevermore will turn on your own forces!"

"That's just a chance I'm willing to take," Yang rolled the dice before whooping triumphantly.

Team JNPR we're off to the side, unpreturbed by the chaotic board game. Nora was sound asleep while Ren and Pyrrha were studying and Jaune was reading comics.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Ruby shouted melodramatically

"Eh, most of them were probably androids," Nero said

"Goodbye my friends, you will be avenged," Ruby vowed.

"Not until I draw my rewards!" Yang cut off her promises, "Which are double this round thanks to the Mistral Trade Route!"

"Bah!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Oh, and what's this? The Smugglers of Wind Path?"

"This is—" Nero began before cutting himself off and saying, "Stupid. Very stupid and...dumb."

"Whatever you say. It looks like I'm taking two cards in my hand!"

"Have you no heart?" Ruby collapsed onto Nero, much to the latter's surprise, and began to sob dramatically.

"Well, now that you're done your _amazing_ performances, let's get on with this fucking thing," Griffon interjected.

"I think I should make a swear jar for you," Yang frowned.

"And what would I pay with, feathers?" the bird sarcastically remarked.

"Hush, you," V stopped him, "I suppose it's my turn."

The boy looked through his cards before grinning a bit evilly and making his move.

"To start off with, I use Resourceful Raider and Desert Scavenge to take your discarded Air Fleet and Nevermore," he began, playing the appropriate cards and making Ruby cry more, "And I will use Sandstorm to disable your forces and attack you directly Yang!"

"That would be true, but you activated another trap card! Your forces are destroyed!" Yang stood up and pointed at V dramatically.

"Foolishness Yang, foolishness. It appears you trap card activated my own trap card," V responded calmly, "Counter Ambush prevents all damage done by enemy trap cards this turn!"

The sound of glass breaking was heard as Yang's mouth hung agape at the action and she collapsed back into her chair.

"Now then, Yang Xiao Long, it seems I am now the ruler of Mistral. Hand over all your possessions," V grinned evilly as Yang half-heartedly slid her cards over while starring at the board in disbelief.

"HAHA! Take that sister!" Ruby exclaimed at her older sibling's misfortune.

"Make no mistake Ruby, you're next," V commented at which the girl withered.

"V, I think you'd make for a frightening evil Overlord," Weiss commented from the sidelines.

"I can be if I chose to be."

"Well, I can still kick your...I mean beat you at any fighting game you chose," Nero declared.

"I don't believe you'd catch me dead playing such a game that lacks any form of strategy and thought whatsoever."

"Excuse me?!?!"

"ANYWAY!" Ruby stopped the two before they could argue further, "It's your turn Blake!"

Blake was shaken out from her thoughts, "Wait, what's happening again?"

"You're playing as Vale trying to conquer the world," Nero summarized quickly.

"Uh-Huh," she muttered disinterestedly.

"Hey, can I play?" Jaune walked up to the group.

"Sorry Jaune, but we already have four players!" Ruby said.

"But...Nero's playing on your tea—" Jaune began.

"Don't ask too many questions!" Ruby cut him off while Nero raised an eyebrow.

"Besides, this game requires a certain level of tactical cunning that I seriously doubt that you possess," Weiss continued.

"Yeah, you ain't exactly the brightest bulb in the pack, Casanova," Griffon mocked him.

"Bring it on, Ice Queen and Feather-Face! I'll have you know that I have been told that I am a natural born leader!"

"By who, your momma?" Griffon cackled.

"A-And Pyrrha!"

"Come on!" Jaune looked to V and reached out a hand, "Can I play your hand for a turn?"

V grabbed his cane, making Griffon fly off, and lightly smacked Jayne's hand, "I will not let you sabotage my plans for world domination."

"Why not? You've trusted me with way more important stuff before. I mean, you told us all that Blake is secretly a Fa—"

"Fun-loving person, whom we all admire and respect!" Pyrrha darted over immediately and clamped a hand over Jaune's mouth.

V and Blake glared at Jaune for his comment.

"Right. That. Ladies, gentlemen, enjoy your battle," he quickly exited with Pyrrha.

"'Sup losers!" a new voice came from the side. Sun and his blue haired friend walked up to the table.

"Hey Sun!" Ruby greeted him.

"Ruby, Yang, Blake, V, New Friend...Ice Queen."

"Why does everyone keep calling me that?"

"Well, I never got the chance to introduce my friend and it seems you guys have a friend to introduce too!"

"Um, aren't libraries for reading?" the blue haired teen said.

"Thank you!" Ren input from the side.

"Shut up. Don't be a nerd," Sun joked.

"Ah-buh-buh-buh! Intellectual, alright? Thank you. I'm Neptune," he waved to the group.

"So Neptune, where are you from?" Weiss inquired.

"Haven," he answered, approaching her, "And I don't believe I caught your name, snow angel?"

"Um, I'm Weiss," the girl responded bashfully.

"Are you kidding me?" Jaune protested to the side.

"And who's your friend over there?" Neptune asked Weiss.

"Nero," the mentioned teen stated, uninterested in a conversation with some...annoying, flirtatious son of a bitch.

"Never took you as a Board game playing type," Sun said, looking over Blake's shoulder at her cards.

"Right, well, I think I'm done playing actually. I'll see you guys later," she shoved Sun aside and left the room.

_Curious_, V thought, drumming his fingers on his cane.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

Nero repeatedly threw a ball against the floor of his dorm room, bouncing it up and off the wall back to his hand. He and V retired to their room after the latter completely swept both Ruby and Nero as well as somehow mildly struggling to overcome Jaune (who had taken over for Blake after she left).

"Could you please refrain from doing that?" V groaned as he looked up from his homework.

"Nope," Nero simply said, continuing to bounce the ball, much to V's frustration.

The black haired boy returned to his work, scrawling notes for Grimm Studies from some books from the library.

_Gods know Port doesn't teach anything._

He was interrupted when Nero's ball hit the back of his head, making him turn around. Nero merely shrugged.

"Don't you have homework to do?"

"Yeah, but who gives a shit about that? I'll do it later."

"We have a test in two days!"

"Then I'll study tomorrow."

V had a deadpan expression on his face.

Nero sighed, "Look, I think you're overreacting a little. You should learn to be more laid back. Y'know, be more fun and less of a killjoy."

"I invented fun."

"Mhm."

Suddenly, V's scroll buzzed, cutting off the two. V picked it up and found the caller to be...Blake.

"Hello?" he answered the call.

"Hello V. Just to be fair I was mostly against this."

V heard a muffled "No you weren't!" in the background.

"Against what?"

"We wanted to invite you and Nero to help us find that Torchwick guy and the White Fang!" Yang shouted, likely having stolen Blake's Scroll, "Come to our room tomorrow after classes!"

"Give that back!" Blake could be heard on the other side as Yang was heard protesting, "In sorry about that."

"Don't worry too much about it."

"Look, we'll explain everything when you guys get here. I'll... see you then."

"Confess your undying love to him!" Yang yelled in the background.

The call abruptly ended after he heard Blake groan in frustration. He turned to see Nero with a shit-eating grin.

"So, that your girlfriend?"

"Piss off."


	3. Chapter 3: Investigation!

**Sorry for the delay in chapters, ladies and gentlemen! For my procrastination, I have a quadruple upload for you!**

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

"So, guess we're playing 'Detectives?'" Nero asked V as he walked down the hallway next to V. Unlike his usual outfit, he had a purple jacket and a similarly colored scarf over his neck. Underneath, his usual red vest and black shirt combo was replaced by a blue button-up shirt. He wore jeans as well as the same boots as normal, but his Rose belt buckle was replaced by a rectangular one with an axe insignia. His right arm was still covered by a sling.

"We're being invited to help stop some conspiracy most evil. I'd say it'll be interesting enough," V commented. The black wrist band on his left arm was replaced by a green one. His predominantly black outfit was replaced by a green one with golden symbols on its vest. His sandals were also yellow rather than black.

"Well," Nero said as they got to Team RWBY's door, "Let's not keep our ladies waiting."

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

"Alright, guys, today's the day! The investigation begins!" Ruby exclaimed, happily leaping off her mattress and onto the floor, almost landing on Weiss.

"I'm glad to see we're taking this so seriously," Weiss sarcastically remarked.

"Hey, we've got a plan!" Yang protested, "That's...moderately serious."

"Right!" Ruby agreed before a knocking came from their door. Weiss opened it to reveal V and Nero outside. The latter gave a small wave.

"Oh hey guys! Come on in!" Ruby smiles and waved back. The two entered the room and joined the little circle RWBY had formed.

"So, what's the plan?" V asked.

"Well, Nero and I will be going with Weiss to the CCT," the leader began.

"I'll be checking SDC records for any other Dust robberies or inconsistencies," Weiss explained her role.

"The White Fang has regular faction meetings to hand out orders and recruit new members," Blake said, "If I can get in, I can hopefully find out what they're planning."

"I have an old friend on the shady side of town that typically knows everything going on in Vale. Getting information out of him shouldn't be too hard..." Yang finished.

"Aren't we forgetting someone?" Nero said. Everyone looked at V.

"Oh no! I didn't really think this through enough," Ruby apologized.

"Don't worry about it," V assured, "I'll see if I can find out anything else in town. I was planning on buying books soon anyway."

"At least you have something to do. But I still feel bad," Ruby sighed.

In response, Nero ruffled her hair, "You don't have to keep beating yourself up about it. V's a big boy; he'll be fine."

"Okay then. We'll meet up tonight near Yang to go over what we found," Ruby pumped her first in the air, "Lets do this!"

"Yeah!" a voice came from outside the open window. The group looked over to find Sun hanging upside down in the frame.

"What the fuck?" Nero exclaimed before realizing his mistake and passing Ruby another 5 Lien.

"How did you even get here?" Yang asked.

"Ah, it's easy, I do it all the time!" Sun said, oblivious to the wording of his response. V, Nero, and Weiss all radiated anger. If looks could kill, Sun would be dead.

"You do what?" the three asked threateningly.

"I climb trees all the time," he clarified and flipped into the room, "So, we finally getting back at this Torchwick dude?"

"We are going to investigate the situation..." Blake explained before nodding to Nero and V, "And we're trying to keep only a few people involved."

"Psh, that's dumb! You should get a lot of friends involved! Thats why I brought Neptune!"

Everyone peeked out of the window. V's eyebrows raised in surprise as he saw Neptune standing on a very thin ledge.

"'Sup?" the blue haired teen said, seemingly unperturbed by his position.

"How did you even get up here?" Ruby asked.

"I have my ways. But...uh...can I come in? This is, like, really high."

After helping the bluenette into the room and reforming their circle, Ruby contemplated a few options for the new arrivals before coming to a conclusion.

"Okay! New teams!" she announced with a smile and her finger pointing into the air, "Sun, you'll be going with Blake. And Neptune, you'll go with V since he doesn't have a partner."

"Actually, Ruby, why don't you go with Yang? After all, she is your sister," Weiss tried to compromise.

"But who would go with you?" Ruby asked.

"Well, I guess Neptune will go with me."

"Hmmmmm," Ruby seemed to think for a moment before smiling and cracking up, "Ha ha! Nah!"

"But! But!" Weiss tried to object as she was dragged away by Ruby.

"See you later, losers," Nero did a two finger salute as he walked backwards out the door after them.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

"So, what are we doing?" Neptune asked, walking next to V with his hands behind his head.

"Well, firstly, we're going to go to a local bookstore," the black haired teen responded.

"Well, as a man of intellect myself, I also like bookstores, but what does his have to do with the White Fang or Torchwick?"

"Oh, absolutely nothing, I just wanted to grab a book for a friend."

Neptune thought for a moment before dropping his hands and turning to him, "That friend wouldn't happen to be—"

The two were interrupted as they rounded a corner to find police tape around a store front and detectives and cops milling about.

Above the door was a sign reading "Tukson's Book Trade."

"Well," Neptune commented, "I guess we found something suspicious."

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

"Woooooow! I forgot how big the Transmit tower looks up close!" Ruby exclaimed.

"You should see the one in Atlas!" Weiss replied.

"Look at me, I'm Weiss! I'm rich and Atlas is the best! The only thing bigger than our CCT Tower is our egos!" Nero mocked Weiss in a haughty voice, making Ruby laugh and Weiss smack him on the shoulder.

"Don't be a pest! Besides, the only reason we're here is because Ruby likes the tower so much! We could just as easily make a call from the library!" Weiss retorted.

"Well, whatever. Hey, Ruby! Let's take a picture!" Nero said. He pulled out his Scroll and held it away from him and Ruby, snapping a picture of themselves. Suddenly, someone bumped into his shoulder, causing him to drop the Scroll.

"Crap!" he exclaimed as he followed it before it came to rest at the feet of someone.

"Oh! You dropped this!" a girl picked up the Scroll and gave it to Nero.

"Thank you. Sorry about that," he apologized as he waved and walked back to Ruby and Weiss. The two seemed to look back towards the person who picked up his Scroll.

"What, you two jealous of someone I don't even know?" he joked.

"Wha—? Of course not, you dolt!" Weiss bopped him on the head with her fist.

"She just seemed really, familiar," Ruby said before shrugging her shoulders, "Probably nothing important."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get this call done!" Nero said as the trio headed toward the tower.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

"I guess we're not book shopping then," Neptune commented as he began to turn around. V halted his movement by hooligans his cane on his shoulder.

"No, we're not," he said, "We're investigating."

Neptune tried to disagree, but his partner had already begun walking. V bumped into a black haired-cop and apologized as he continued.

"But how do we get in? We're not cops!" Neptune asked.

"Then I'll act like one," V showed him a badge he'd lifted from the cop who had passed by.

"But we hardly look like cops!"

"Well, we'll deal with that later," V said as he took a pair of gloves from a nearby box and ducked under the tape.

"Excuse me!" an officer on scene, "This is for authorized personnel only!"

"Not to worry, sir," he flashed the lifted badge quickly and put it away before the cop looked close enough, "I'm Detective Vincent Sepia. I was called in to investigate."

The cop stroked his chin a bit, "I thought you'd be taller."

"I get that a lot."

"And who's your friend over there?" he pointed to Neptune.

"Oh," V thought quickly to come up with an excuse, "That's my intern!" he turned back to the blue haired teen, "Go get me some coffee or something!"

Neptune groaned before shuffling off to a coffee stand nearby.

"Mhm...well, come on in, detective. It's not a pretty sight, though," he beckoned V into the store as he held the door.

The first thing V noticed was the smell. Front. and center was the dead body of Tukson on his side on the right of the aisle to the cash register from the door. Dust had settled over much of the store, given the lack of care.

"Well, what do you think?" the cop asked.

"Clearly the murder happened at least two, three days ago. The body's had time to begin decomposition and there's dust to testify to that," V began walking over to the body. He turned the face up and grimaced a bit. The head was indented a bit with clear signs of a gunshot. However, the indentation matched more so a foot than a gauntlet

"Killer used a blunt weapon with some sort of gun attachment," V stood up, "Likely a form of Greaves or a metal prosthetic," he looked back to the stands by the door and shuffled some of the books around. He found a silver hair on one of them.

_The dust on some of these books is less than the others. The killer must have been back here, but what would cause the owner to leave from behind the desk? If the killer used prosthetics or boots, there's a low possibility the owner would have recognized a weapon, and if the browsing is any indication, there wasn't much way of detecting hostile intent. Unless..._

V turned back toward the desk where the register sat. In front of the counter, he saw some green hairs.

_Likely slashed off by the owner's claws. Near miss...but this means there were two here._

"What do you think, detective?" the cop asked, squaring by Tukson's body.

"There were to people here. One was by the counter and the other was back there," he pointed to where the detective stood as he examined some cracks on the desk by the side closest to the back room, "The owner probably leapt to attack the first person here," he pointed to where he found he green hair, "But was caught off guard by the second attacker. No Lien was taken, so this wasn't a robbery."

"You thinking murder? But who the hell would want to kill a book seller?"

"I'm thinking I'll have to see the back," V pushed open the door to the back with his cane. Rows of books lined it. To the right corner from the door was a desk. He walked over; nothing was on the surface. V frowned before opening a drawer and emptying them onto the surface. Then another. Then the last two.

On the desk now sat random items, but the most important were an Airship ticket to Vacuo and a small White Fang logo.

_Interesting._

As V turned around, his cane made an odd sound tapping against the floorboards. Looking down, he tapped twice more and tapped twice back by the desk.

_Discrepancy in sound. Hollow floor?_

He reached down, feeling around until he found a handle. Lifting it up revealed a hidden compartment with a small duffel bag.

_A bug out bag._

V then walked back to the front, but not before grabbing a particular book on the way out. As he passed the cop, he was asked, "What did you get?"

"Our killers might have been associated with the White Fang. Tukson was trying to leave for Vacuo, but I guess they didn't like that," he said, "Have the boys check for fingerprints and send anything else to forensics."

V stepped out and saw Neptune standing outside of the line. He threw off his gloves and walked over, ducking under the line as they began to walk off.

"No coffee?" he joked.

"Shut up, man. I'm not actually your intern," Neptune groaned, "So what did you find out?"

A sudden shouting came from behind them. The two turned to see the black-haired detective that V had bumped into before arguing with a cop on scene before being lead off to a patrol car.

"That's a problem," V said.

"Not ours, though," Neptune replies as the two continued onward. As the two rounded a corner, Neptune slammed into someone, but he was the only one who fell down with an "OW!"

"Sorry!" came a girl's voice. V looked at the person who bumped into him and was shocked to find...

"Penny?"


	4. Chapter 4: A Minor Hiccup

"Penny?"

"This a friend of yours?" Neptune asked groggily as he stood up.

"I'm sorry, but you must have me confused for someone else," Penny hurriedly said with a look of worry. Soon after finishing her sentence, she hiccuped.

"I'm afraid you're wrong there. We met before, when I was searching for Blake," V said matter-of-factly. Penny turned to walk away before V stopped her by hooking his cane on her shoulder and saying, "I'm not sure why you suddenly deny any acknowledgement of someone you once referred to as 'friend,' but I heard from Ruby that you disappeared at the docks when you arrived. Why is that?"

Penny glances left and right before whispering, "It's not safe to talk here."

Neptune simply glanced around confused, asking, "Can someone explain what is happening right now?"

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

Weiss, Ruby, and Nero walked through the grand lobby of the CCT. Ruby stopped and looked around in wonder for a while, causing Weiss to grab her by her cloak and drag her to the elevator to break her out of her stupor. A panel on the elevator lit up as an AI appeared.

"Hello. Welcome to the CCT. How may I help you?" it said.

"We'd like to go to the communications room, please," Weiss answered.

"Absolutely," the AI confirmed, "Could you please place your Scrolls on the terminal to verify your identity?"

The three teens individually placed their Scrolls as directed.

"Perfect! Thank you, Miss Schnee, Miss Rose, and Mister Angelo."

The elevator finally reached the top of the tower and the occupants stepped out into a room filled with terminals. Weiss walked up to the front desk first, followed after by Nero and Ruby.

"Welcome to the Beacon Cross Continental Transmit center. How may I help you?" the AI behind the desk asked Weiss.

"I need to make a call to Schnee Company World Headquarters in Atlas."

"Absolutely. If you could head over to Terminal 3, I'll patch you through."

"Thank you!" Weiss smiles before walking over. Nero and Ruby stepped up after their friend left.

"And How may I help you?"

"I'd like to call the Goldstein residence. In Argus," Nero said.

"Absolutely! Head to terminal 10, I'll patch you through."

"Thanks," Nero said as he led Ruby over.

"So is this your friend?" Ruby asked.

"Well, more like she's a thorn in my side that I've learned to put up with," he joked, "Just to warn you, she can be a little...crazy at times."

"Oh, she can't be worse than Yang," Ruby replied with a grin.

"Eh, don't be too sure..."

The two sat at the terminal as it came to life showing a girl with tied-up black hair and glasses. She wore a white tank top, a dark-yellow sleeveless jacket, and jean shorts with a belt containing multiple tools.

"'Sup?" she greeted.

"Hey Nico—" Nero began before he was cut off.

"Wait! Is that Ruby Rose?" Nico asked before laughing, causing Ruby to become a bit flustered.

"Nico..." Nero growled.

"No! No! Don't take that the wrong way! It's just hard to believe I'm finally seein ya! I'm Nicoletta Goldstein, but you can call me Nico. I helped Nero with making his weapons and he's basically my edgy little bro," Nico said with a wave to the red dressed huntress, "He talked about you all the time."

"R-really?" Ruby stuttered.

"Oh yeah! He even wanted to name his sword after you: Red Rose! But since he didn't know what to name his pistol, he split it to Red Queen and Blue Rose. Still think it's sappy as hell though..."

"Nico..." Nero's voice dripped with venom.

"A'ight, fine. Kill all the fun. Asshole," Nico groaned, "Why'd you call anyway?"

"Well, my teammate is calling someone else and I didn't want to just stand around doing nothing, so Nero said we could call you," Ruby exclaimed, scratching her head.

"Well ain't that sweet?" she smugly glances at the boy for his earlier antagonism, "Did he want me to share all his embarrassing stories with you?"

"Oooooh! What can you tell me?" Ruby demanded excitedly.

"See, there was this one time about a year ago when—"

"On second thought this was a terrible idea. Bye Nico!" Nero flipped off the inventor and proceeded to use his middle finger to press the end call button.

"Awwwww..." Ruby looked disheartened.

"I'll just share some stories later. She makes them sound a million times worse than they actually are," he said, standing up.

"I'm holding you to that!" Ruby huffed as they walked back toward the elevator to wait for Weiss.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

Meanwhile, V and Penny were walking down the street with Neptune trailing behind them. Neptune strokes his chin in thought.

"So, just because you made some terrible poetry related joke, Ruby's sister punched you in the gut?"

"Yeah, pretty much," V said, "But let's not talk about it. The more important thing is whether or not you know anything that could help our investigation," V indicates toward Penny.

"I'm sorry V, but I don't know anything about those men."

V pursed his lips before drumming his fingers on his cane.

"I wasn't involved, but if you were with Ruby when you showed up at the docks, then where did you go? I mean, suddenly vanishing is a bit bizarre," Neptune asked.

"You see, I've never actually been to other kingdoms before," Penny explained, "My father told me not to venture out too far, but...you have to understand, my father loves me very much; he just worries a lot."

"Hmmm," V looked down a bit at the last part of her statement before recomposing himself, "It still seems odd you didn't talk to Ruby or anyone else afterwards if we're apparently friends."

"Oh. Well I'm technically not supposed to talk to you. Or Ruby. Or Blake. Or Weiss. Or Yang. Or...really anyone, actually," Penny said.

"Huh. Your dad must be really upset," Neptune said with raised eyebrows.

"That part actually wasn't my father," Penny began. She was interrupted as the two turned a corner and ended up in front of a plaza where a holographic image of General Ironwood was on a stage with six Atlesian cyborgs behind him. Behind each unit was a metal container.

"What is this?" V asked rhetorically.

"The AK-130 has been a standard security model of Remnant for several years, and they have done a fine job. Wouldn't you agree? Wouldn't you agree?" began the General. The applause of the gathered audience seemed to answer his question and caused the drones to take a jerky bow.

"But..." he continued, "the kingdom of Atlas is a kingdom of innovation, and 'fine'...Well, that's just not good enough, is it? Presenting...the Atlesian Knight-200!"

The containers on stage opened and six bulkier, shinier, and brand new automatons stepped out, knocking over their now-obsolete predecessors to the applause of the audience.

"Smarter, sleeker, and admittedly, a little less scary, these models will become active later this year, but they won't be alone! Now, the Atlesian Military has always supported the idea of removing men from the dangers of the battlefield. However, there are still many situations that will undoubtedly require...a human touch."

"V..." Penny said nervously. V glanced over, concerned with her reaction.

"So, our kingdom's greatest minds, in cooperation with the Schnee Dust Company, are proud to introduce...the Atlesian Paladin!"

Ironwood's image disappeared after the last statement, now replaced with a robotic behemoth that was twice as large as the units below it.

The General's voice continued, "Now, we couldn't have him here for you today, but these mechanized battle suits will be seen defending the borders of our kingdom within the year!"

"Huh," Neptune crossed his arms at the display, curious.

"Guys, maybe we should go somewhere else..." Penny was once again concerned. Her male companions looked to the side of the stage to see two soldiers looking at Penny, pointing to them and calling reinforcements.

"Yeah, I think—" Neptune turned to find Penny running away, followed soon after by V. He sighed, "When in Vale..."

The three ran down an alley before crossing a road with the two soldiers on hot pursuit. V turned to see the soldiers narrowly avoid being hit by a car, temporarily slowing their chase. As they ran around another corner in an alley, Neptune grabbed his weapon off his back, unfolding it into a glance and slicing at some supports holding up a pile of crates and cutting off the soldiers from their path.

V summoned Shadow to run alongside him. After running a few more steps, he hopped up and Shadow formed a fast moving dark cloud below him. He grabbed Neptune by the shoulder and flung him behind him onto the cloud as they caught up to Penny. He used his cane to hook her around the waist and pull her up onto Shadow.

"Lets go!" he said as they sped off down another alley, completely dusting their pursuers.

After traveling a fair distance away, V unsummoned Shadow. While Penny and V landed on their feet, Neptune was unprepared and stumbled out onto the street. As he slowly rose, he didn't realize a truck was moving fast down the road towards him. V immediately recognized the perilous situation and summoned Griffon who began to dive toward Neptune to pick him up.

However, their plan was stopped as Penny shot in front of the truck and stopped it with her bare hands, picking it up with her hands, causing the ground below her to crack.

"Holy fuck!" Griffon exclaimed.

"Are you alright?" Penny asked the man in the truck as she set it down. He simply nodded, still in shock of the situation.

"What just happened?" Neptune asked in shock. Penny didn't say anything as she glanced at the nervous bystanders and back at V and Neptune. In her panic, she sprinted away again as the soldiers helped with damage control.

"Well shit," Griffon commented, "Guess we're done here."

"No," V said as he began to run after the girl, "This just got even more interesting."

"Hey, wait up!" Neptune called after them. As he started to fall behind, Griffon swooped down and picked him up, carrying him over to his companions who were now stopped some distance away.

"Seems you're a bit more interesting than you let on, Penny," V stated as the girl looked back at them.

"How in the heck did you do that?" Neptune exclaimed as Griffon set him down and vanished.

"Griffon is a familiar of mine and—" V began.

"Not you, man! Penny!"

"I-I can't! Everything is fine!" Penny insisted, hiccuping after the statement, "I-I don't want to talk about it!" she hiccuped again.

"That's exactly what people say when they really need to tell someone what's wrong with them!" Neptune said, "Look, we're all friends here, right? Just let us help you!"

"No, you wouldn't understand," Penny continued to try to walk away.

"Then help us understand," V replied.

Penny stopped in her tracks, finally relenting. She turned back and walked up to V and Neptune.

"You're my friends, right? You promise you are?" Penny asked desperately.

"Yeah, yeah! We promise!" Neptune said with his hands up.

Penny sighed before revealing her hands, "You see...I'm not a real girl."

V and Neptune looked down at Penny's palms. Nothing seemed amiss at first, but upon looking closer, the two noticed tears in the skin on her hands with no blood.

Where flesh would be, there was dull, grey metal.

V's eyes widened, "This is...curious."


	5. Chapter 5: Painting the Town

**Well lads and lasses, I've finally graduated High School! Jaysus Christ, glad that shit's done! I'm going to be moving to college in August (though that won't stop my uploading), but until then it's mostly free summer so between video games and prepping for college and swimming. **

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

"Woah," Neptune said in shock as he and V processed the information presented to them.

"But how-?" V asked.

"Some girls are born. I was made. I'm the world's first synthetic person capable of generating an Aura," Penny explained, looking away in shame, "I'm not real."

"Hold up," Neptune held up his hands, "You think you're not real? Come on, you're just like me or V! Just not super into poetry. And you're a girl," Neptune sighed, "Point is, just cause you have some metal making you up instead of skin and bones doesn't mean you're not a person."

V stroked his chin thoughtfully, "Well Neptune, I must say I'm impressed that a flirtatious fool like yourself could come up with such a heartfelt message."

Neptune lightly smacked him on the back of the head as Penny tilted her head to the side.

"You two are taking this very well."

"Well, it's not like almost everyone on the planet has super powers or something," Griffon quipped, perched on V's shoulder.

"Thank you so much! You're amazing friends!" Penny thanked them while shaking V's hand vigorously, making him grimace slightly in pain.

"I can see why your father wants to protect such a delicate girl," he said, massaging his shoulder.

_Nearly dislocated my shoulder._

"Oh he's very sweet! My father's the one that built me! I'm sure you would love him!"

"I mean if we have the time, maybe we could go later with our friends?" Neptune offered.

"Maybe. But I'm not sure if the General would be happy."

"Wait, Metaldick? What's he got to do with any 'a this?" Griffon shouted.

"Do you mean Ironwood?" Penny innocently asked, "Well, he helped my father build me."

That explains the soldiers.

"But why be so concerned? You seem to be able to handle yourself just fine," Neptune pointed out.

"They just don't know if I'm ready yet...They say one day I'll save the world, but I've got a lot to learn about. That's why I'm participating in the tournament. I want to see what it's like in the rest of the world and test myself!"

"That doesn't make any sense. The world is at peace," Neptune scratched his head in confusion.

"Some would beg to differ..." V thought aloud. Before he could comment further, a voice came from around the corner.

"Check down here!"

"Oh no! You have to hide!" Penny picked up Neptune and V effortlessly as Griffon fell off the latter's shoulder with a exclamation of "Shit!" before disappearing again.

"Woah! Hold up! What are you doing!" Neptune shouted in a panic. Penny chucked the boys into a dumpster and lifted the lid a bit to talk.

"Don't worry, you two. I'll be fine. I just don't want you to get into any trouble, okay? And please, don't tell anyone else my secret," Penny stared gravely at the two.

"These lips are sealed," V said.

"Same here," his partner concurred.

The lid was put down as the two boys reclined in the dark and somewhat smelly dumpster, only able to listen to the events outside.

"There she is!" one of the soldiers called out.

"Sal-u-tations, officers!" Penny greeted them, seemingly oblivious to their concern.

"Why were you running? And what happened to the two boys?" the second soldier demanded.

"What boys? I've been by myself all day!" Penny loudly hiccuped, causing V to grimace at her tic from lying.

"You shouldn't cause such a scene. Are you okay?" the first soldier continued, not catching on to the lie.

"Just a scratch."

"Penny, your father isn't going to be happy about this. Please, just come with us," the second soldier requested.

"Yes, sir!"

Three sets of footsteps continued away from the dumpster until they eventually faded away. Neptune cautiously lifted the lid to the container and looked around to find the threat gone. He let out a sigh of relief as V popped up too.

"Well, that was fu—AUGH!" Neptune commented before screaming as he looked down to see a rat on his foot. V yelped in surprise as the two dove out of the dumpster. Griffon was immediately summoned, blasting the container with a powerful lightning blast, reducing it to molten slag and burning trash before flying off after the two teens running away.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

Nero, Ruby, and Weiss exited the CCT when their Scrolls buzzed simultaneously. The three answered the call.

"Everyone!" Blake said, breathing heavily, "If you can hear me, we need—"

"HEEEEEEEEEELP!" they heard Sun shriek, cutting her off. The teens glanced at each other, sprinting off from the tower.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

"BIG ROBOT! IT'S BIG! REALLY BIG" Sun continued to scream. Yang looked at her Scroll in amusement before revving her motorcycle and riding off.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

V and Neptune were catching their breath outside of an alley having finally reached the streets when they got the call.

"That Torchwick guy is in it! But it didn't, like, eat him or something. He's kinda controlling it I think!" Sun continued to ramble.

"Where are you guys?" Neptune asked. Suddenly, a rumbling and screaming were heard behind the duo. They turned to the street to see Sun and Blake run past them, pursued by a large mech suit. Neptune turned back to V, saying, "Wanna go rescue Sun and your girlfriend?"

"Shut up."

V summoned Shadow and the two raced off after the commotion.

They finally caught up as the Paladin charged across a bridge, with Blake and Sun now jumping between cars to avoid it.

"We need to slow it down somehow," V said.

"On it."

Neptune readied his gun, but Roman took notice of the two and threw a few of the cars surrounding him towards them.

"Woah!" Neptune shouted before Griffon picked him up and flew him over top of the projectiles. V weaved in between the cars and leaned back to slide under the final car. After V was clear, Griffon swooped back down and deposited Neptune. The blue haired teen regained his bearings and aimed at the Mech once more, firing blue bolts of electricity at it. However, the shots had little effect, so Neptune transformed his gun into a glaive, leaping from Shadow onto the back of the Paladin and stabbing it.

This attack proved to only be an annoyance as well, as the Mech began swinging around wildly in an attempt to shake off the unwanted hitchhiker.

"Neptune! Hang on!" Sun shouted to his teammate. He slammed his palms together, creating two spectral clones of himself that raced forward and slammed into the Paladin. Sun followed up, jumping towards it with his nunchucks held high, but his attack was quickly countered by Neptune being shaken loose from the robot, colliding with Sun and sending them both tumbling over the side of the bridge.

"Well, that's unfortunate," Yang commented as she pulled up next to V on her motorcycle.

"Quite," he agreed as they sped ahead. They both looked ahead to see Weiss create a sheet of ice and force their enemy to slide off the side to the ground below. V leapt off Shadow and glided down with Griffon, falling next to Blake, Weiss, and Yang and landing near Ruby and Nero.

"Freezerburn!" Ruby ordered after they assembled. While the others ran to the sides, Weiss created another ice sheet that Yang punched, creating a dense fog and covering the group's movements from the machine. Lasers began scanning the area from the sides of the mech, still not detecting them.

The sensors suddenly picked up on Blake's presence, firing at her position and missing. Ruby burst forth through the blast, slashing at the suit to no effect. Griffon and Shadow attacked as well, taking out a few of the sensors dotting the sides of the bot.

The assault didn't stop, and was continued by...

A locker?

A rocket locker from Beacon slammed into the top of the Paladin, and Nero leapt up, opening it, withdrawing and bolstering a pistol, and grabbing his sword in one fluid motion. He landed on the back of it and began slashing away at any exposed areas.

"Checkmate!" Ruby called out next. Blake and Weiss ran forward, covered by a Blockade from Griffon. They slashed at the legs of the bot; Weiss leapt up and stabbed a sensor, causing Torchwick to attempt to stomp Blake. Quick intervention by Weiss's glyphs allowed her teammate to avoid the attack. Soon after, the top of the machine opened, knocking off Nero and revealing missile launchers. The weapons fired at Blake and Weiss, forcing them to retreat.

Nightmare crashed down in front of the mech, and V hopped on top of his summon. The Paladin threw a right hook at them which Nightmare blocked before following up with a simple jab to the midsection of its opponent. As the two exchanges blows, RWBY and Nero continued to attack and destroy the sensors on the bot.

However, their advantage was soon ended as Roman finally landed a solid hit on V, knocking him off of Nightmare and through one of the surrounding columns, knocking him out and making his familiars vanish.

"Crap!" Nero shouted as he blocked a kick from the Paladin and was forced back by the blow. Another round of missiles and energy blasts slammed into the ground around Torchwick, forcing Team RWBY back as well. Unfortunately, one stray blast landed square on Nero's chest.

"Nero!" Ruby cried out. The boy was fine, but the right half of his jacket was destroyed, as well as the sling, exposing his arm. The sight shocked the girls.

Where a normal human arm would be was a scaly and demonic arm that was colored blue and maroon.

As Nero caught his breath with his sword stuck in the ground, he looked down to his right arm, then to Team RWBY and the fallen V, and then to the mech suit.

"All right then, kiddie gloves are off," Nero growled, "Time to bag this bitch!"

**(Play Devil May Cry 4 OST—The Time Has Come)**

He punctuated his exclamation by revving his sword, causing flames to shoot out of it. In the blink of an eye, he slashed forward and closed the gap between him and the Paladin. Out of Nero's demonic arm extended a spectral hand that grabbed onto the front of the mech and pulled him up.

Nero slashed repeatedly at the front of the suit, each time revving his sword as he hit it, keeping up the heat. Roman attempted to swat him, but the teen fired his pistol right in front of him, creating a small explosion and sending him backwards. Missiles were fired after him, but he easily sidestepped and leapt over each one before firing at one of the missiles while it was in its launcher, causing a chain reaction that heavily damaged the suit and crippled its long range weapons.

In a rage, Torchwick sent the Paladin charging him, yet Nero was unfazed. As soon as it launched a punch at him, he sidestepped it and grabbed it with his demon arm, bringing it to the ground. With a grunt of effort, he picked up its arm with both hands and began to spin around with the bot in tow. Ruby, passive until this point, finally came up with a quick plan.

"Bumblebee!"

Blake held the ribbon end of Gambol Shroud while Yang held onto the weapon end. The cat Faunus swung her partner in a circle as well; the speed was further boosted by Yang using Ember Celica to propel her with gunshots.

"Nero! Try to throw him over here on my mark!" Ruby shouted to her friend. Nero grunted in acknowledgement.

"3, 2, 1, now!"

Nero launched the large mech towards Blake and Yang's position while the brawler released Gambol Shroud, throwing a super powerful punch dead center as she met the Paladin mid-air. The robot shattered in the impact, making Roman stumble backwards as he landed.

"Just got this thing cleaned..." he remarked as he stood up. Yang fired a shot at the thief, but she was blocked by a strange pale girl wielding an umbrella, dressed in two-tones, brown and pink.

"Ladies, gentlemen, Ice Queen," Roman said, much to Weiss's chagrin, "Always a pleasure! Neo, if you would."

'Neo' curtsied to the assembled teens, with a bow. Yang scowled and charged forward, punching at the face of the henchman. The results weren't what she expected: as soon as her fist made contact, the two criminals shattered like a mirror. She turned around just in time to watch as the real Torchwick and Neo escaped on a Bullhead. Weiss, Ruby, and Nero ran up to her side and watched as well.

"So, I guess he's got a new henchman..." Yang frowned.

"Yeah...I guess she really made our plans..,fall apart!" Weiss joked. Ruby giggled while Nero shook his head. Before Yang commented on the pun, they heard a groan behind them and saw Blake helping V get up.

"You alright, man?" Nero asked.

"Oh yes, perfect. Except for, you know, getting smacked by a hundred-ton robot and being sent flying through a concrete pillar," V deadpanned as he rubbed his temples and picked up his cane.

"Anyway, want to explain...that?" Yang pointed to Nero's arm. The boy sighed and shrugged.

"I'm not sure how it happened myself. It started developing after I had moved to Argus. I just hid it so I wouldn't get called out as a freak," he looked down. Ruby put a hand on his shoulder.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I think it looks awesome," she reassured, "Besides, I still like you."

Suddenly, they both realized realized what Ruby said and their proximity to each other, causing them to turn a bit pink.

"Get a room, you two," Yang said.

"AUGH! Shut up Yang!" Ruby pulled her hood over her head and started storming away. Nero pulled over his half destroyed good and followed suit. The others laughed at the sisters' antics and followed after the two youngest members of the group.


	6. Chapter 6: Burning the Candle

"I can't do this."

"Come on, you'll be fine."

V and Nero walked down a hallway, debating the merits of a very important topic. Nero's right arm was no longer in a sling as he had it before, and he instead let it have some freedom.

"There's no way I could ask Ruby to go to the dance with me," Nero claimed.

"She's practically smitten with you, you numbskull," V countered, "Look, you don't have to do anything fancy. Just ask her and she'll say yes."

"Really?"

"Really."

Nero huffed in defeat, but put a smile on his face as he and V walked up to Ruby as they left Goodwitch's class.

"Hey, Ruby!" Nero waved.

"Oh, hey Nero! What's up?" Ruby asked brushing back a stray hair.

"Well...I-I was wondering..." Nero ribbed the back of his head.

"Hm?"

"Wouldyouliketogotothedancewithme?" the white haired teen blurted out.

"Yes! Of course!" Ruby hugged him in excitement before backing off.

"W-well awesome! I mean thanks! I mean...never mind," Nero fumbles with his speech again.

Yang elbowed Weiss, who groaned as she passed her teammate some Lien.

"~Thank you!~" the blonde brawler sang.

"Now what about you?" Nero turned to V, "Don't you want to ask Blake, or are you too chicken?"

V opened his book, reading, "'He who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence,'" he closed and stowed the book with a smirk, "So it is written."

Blake was late coming out of the class and came out soon after V finished quoting. Her appearance was a bit disheveled with bags under her eyes.

"Well, I think we should go ahead," Yang said, not wanting to interrupt the next proposal. She, Weiss, and Ruby walked away with the last one giving a goodbye wave to Nero. V stepped forward to Blake.

"What do you want?" Blake snapped.

V was mildly put off by her attitude, but nonetheless decided to press onward, "I simply wanted to ask you a question."

"We'll spit it out."

"Would you like to go to the dance with me this weekend?"

Blake scoffed, "I don't have time for a stupid dance. I thought you of all people would understand!"

She stormed passed V, who simply watched her retreating figure. He felt as Nero patted him on the back.

"That's rough, buddy," Nero attempted to reassure V as he frowned and drummed his fingers on his cane.

"'I curse my stars in bitter grief and woe, that made my love so high, and me so low,'" V quoted again before he and Nero began walking to their dorm.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

"YOU WANT ME TO WHAT?"

RWBY made it back to their dorm well enough, but three of the girls were now in an argument with a fourth, fairly adamant teammate.

"We want you to go to the dance," Ruby requested to Blake.

"That's ridiculous."

"Blake, we're worried about you," Yang said, "This investigation is starting to mess with your head."

"You can't sleep, you hardly eat, and to be honest, your grades have been suffering," Weiss counted out each reason on her fingers, increasing their friend's annoyance.

"You think I care about grades?" Blake gestured to the window of the room, "People's lives are at stake!"

Yang put her hand on Blake's, lowering it, "We know, and we're all still trying to figure out what Torchwick is up to."

"Thanks to you and Sun, we know they're operating somewhere outside of southeast Vale," Ruby pointed out.

"And, the Schnee company records singled out Vale as the primary target for Dust robberies over the last few months," Weiss said.

"Don't forget about their missing military tech too," added Yang

"But there's still unanswered questions!" Blake protested.

"Blake, you won't be able to find anything if you can't even keep your eyes open!" Ruby pointed out.

"All we're asking is that you take it easy for one day," Yang pleaded with her partner.

"It will be fun! Yang and I will make sure of it," Weiss claimed.

"Yeah! We're planning the whole event!" Yang exclaimed.

"Excuse me?" Blake asked in exasperation.

"Team CFVY's away mission lasted longer than expected," Weiss explained.

"So, Weiss and I were asked to pick up where they left off," Yang continued, "And now we can make sure you have the perfect night.

"And once it's all over, we'll return for our search, rested and ready," Weiss finished.

"Besides, didn't V ask you to the dance?"Ruby asked.

"Yes."

"And?"

"I refused."

Weiss looked aghast while Ruby and Yang were shocked. The white themed heiress suddenly got into Blake's face, "HOW? HOW DID YOU—HOW COULD YOU DO THAT?"

"He's a smart guy, I'm sure he could figure out why I'm not going," Blake walked away from the group and opened the dorm door, clearly not willing to deal with her teammates insisting any longer.

"I'll be in the library," Blake said before slamming the door shut and storming off.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

Nero and V arrived outside of RWBY's dorm soon after, just in time to watch Jaune try—and fail—to serenade to Weiss to ask her to the dance.

"Swing and a hard miss," Nero dryly commented.

Jaune sighed, "You guys saw that?"

"Only the best parts," V chuckled.

"Look, I don't want to bother you guys, but can you help me?"

"With what?" Nero asked, "If it's dating advice? I got nothing for you."

"Well yes, but actually no."

"Go on."

"Do you two think there is any way I could ask Weiss and actually convince her to go to the dance with me?" Jaune pleaded.

"No," Nero deadpanned, causing Jaune's confidence to deflate as he slid to the floor against the wall.

"Now, now, don't be so harsh," V said, helping Jaune back up, "I'll admit there is no chance in Hell you're getting a date with Weiss Schnee," Jaune slumped a bit again, "But what if I told you that there was another girl you know that is actually interested in you?"

"Really? Who is it? Ruby?"

Nero looked like he was about to snap Jaune's neck, but V pushed him back a little with his cane and a nervous laugh, "Well, no. I'll give you a hint: she's on your team."

"Nora? But isn't she with Ren?"

Nero smacked Jaune across the face and sent him sprawling out on the floor, shouting, "HOW ARE YOU SUCH A THUNDERING DUMBASS!"

"What I believe my friend is trying to say is that Pyrrha's actually had her eye on you for some time now," V stepped in to assist Jaune in recovering again.

"No way. How could a girl like Pyrrha be into some loser like me? I mean, she's smart and pretty and really, really awesome," Jaune said, rubbing the spot he was hit, "Why would she be into a guy like me?"

"Why don't you ask her at your sparing session tonight?" V suggested.

"That's a pretty good idea. Thanks, V."

"No problem. Always glad to help," he gave a slight bow.

"I helped too," Nero said as Jaune went back to his dorm room and they continued one.

"You almost removed his head from his shoulders, but if that's what you call 'helping,' then be my guest."

"Whatever," Nero rolled his eyes. Suddenly, his Scroll vibrated. He picked it up and greeted, "Hello?"

"Yo, Nero! So Team CFVY is going to be late coming back from their mission, so Weiss and I are running the decorating for the party! Wanna help out?" Yang asked.

"No," he said.

"Ruby will be there."

"Fine."

"~Thank you!~"

"Shut up," Nero hung up.

V smirked as he opened the door to their dorm, "And for what reason did the fair maidens call you this time?"

"Piss off," Nero retorted as he fell onto his bed.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

Nero found himself on top of a ladder in the hall the dance was to take place in. While Ruby sat at a table, Weiss pondered over tablecloths, and Yang carries a speaker, Nero was stuck with climbing up to put hanging decorations on the chandeliers and rafters.

"How's the weather up there?" Yang shouted to him.

Nero grunted as he fastened the last hanging streamers in place and began to descend the ladder. Suddenly, Yang dropped the speaker in its spot, shaking the ground and making the ladder tip to the side. Nero began pinwheeling his arms but it was to no avail as he crashed into the floor.

"Are you alright?" Yang asked.

"Might've broken my ass, but other than that I'm fine."

"Swear ja—"

"I'm broke. Don't bother asking," Nero frowned and slumped forward a bit.

"So, have you picked out a dress yet?" Yang asked her younger sister.

"What's the point?" Ruby responded dejectedly, "Who cares about the dance if Blake isn't going?"

"Oh, don't worry; she's going," Yang smokes in reassurance before looking across the room and huffing in exasperation, "Weiss! I thought we agreed: No doilies!

"If I don't get doilies, you don't get fog machines!" Weiss shouted back.

"Wait, you've got fog machines?" Nero said.

The friends were interrupted by the sound of doors opening.

"Your dance is gonna have fog machines?" Neptune asked as he and Sun walked into the room.

Weiss suddenly dropped her hostilities and walked up to him and said sweetly, "We were thinking about it..."

"That's pretty cool."

Sun waked right up to the two, much to Weiss's ire, "You all excited for dress-up?"

Nero snorted while Ruby scoffed, "Yeah, right."

"Laugh all you want. I'll be turning heads tomorrow night!" Yang boldly claimed.

"What are you two wearing?"

"Uuhhh..." Sun gestured to his current outfit, "This?

Neptune shot in front of his friend and covered his face with a hand, "Ignore him for he knows not what he says."

Sun smacked away his friends hand "Hey, I may have moved to Mistral, but I grew up in Vacuo. It's not exactly a shirt-and-tie kind of place."

"Thanks, Captain Obvious," Nero mirrored Ruby, Weiss, and Yang's feelings disinterest at being told basic information.

"Soooo...what does Blake think of all this?" Sun asked, "She still being all, y'know...Blake-y?"

"No shit, Sherlock," Nero deadpanned.

"I still can't think of a way to change her mind," Ruby groaned.

"Guys," Yang began leaving the building, "Trust me; Blake will be at the dance tomorrow."

Nero looked to Ruby as the latter's sister left, "Quite confident, isn't she?"

Ruby smiled back at him, "Yeah, she can be sometimes."

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

"And finally, Pyrrha Nikos."

Three students sat in their dorm. One had silver hair and metal prosthetic legs and read a comic book. The second had green hit and sat on the floor reading a Scroll, and the third had her eyes and was sewing a black dress.

These "students" were Mercury Black, Emerald Sustrai, and Cinder Fall.

"Ah, the invincible girl."

"She's smart, but I wouldn't say invincible," Mercury said.

"Do tell," Cinder leaned in, now interested.

Emerald looked at the file for the girl, "Her Semblance is Polarity. But you'd never know just by watching."

"After she made contact with my boots, she was able to move them around however she wanted. But she only made slight adjustments," Mercury reported.

"Just enough to make it look like she's untouchable. She doesn't broadcast her power, so it puts her opponent at a disadvantage."

"Hmm..." Cinder pondered, "People assume that she's fated for victory, when she's really taking fate into her own hands. Interesting. Add her to the list."

"You should be able to take her no problem," Mercury claimed.

"It's not about overpowering the enemy. It's about taking away what power they have. And we will, in time."

"I hate waiting," Mercury groaned.

Cinder reassured him with a grin, "Don't worry, Mercury. We have a fun night ahead of us."

"What about Nero, and that V guy? Should we be worried about them?" Emerald asked.

"Nero isn't a concern. He might be strong, but he isn't as strong as our ally," Cinder responded before frowning, "But V's another problem."

Mercury guffawed, "What, the tattooed guy with the cane? A problem? He looks like he's as strong and durable as a wet noodle."

"Don't underestimate him on his appearance," Cinder said, "She says he's important. Not only that, but from our intel, he's a shrewd strategist and has some fairly powerful demons at his disposal. If he knew the truth about himself..."

"We'd be screwed," Mercury finished, now a little more uneasy than he was before, "But what 'truth' are ya talking about here?"

"All will be revealed in time. For now, we play the long game," Cinder held up her finished dress, "So long as we play our parts, the plan will go off without a hitch."


	7. Chapter 7: A Night at the Dance

**Hello Demon Hunters and Deadweights! Sorry for the delay. I was busy playing video games, doing college shit, and going on vacation to Disney World and Universal Studios Florida. I have two spooper special chapters for you today before I'm off for college!**

**Before the chapter begins, I wanted to explain a few things about the future of the series.**

**1\. After the currently unnamed Book 3, I'll probably make a singular book with Call Me V, Devil Bringer, and the 3rd book as one completed thing (mostly because when subsequent books are released they'll be three volumes bundled into one book).**

**2\. There will be two more books after said re-release, with Book 2 being Volumes 4-6 and Book 3 being Vol. 7 onward.**

**3\. In regards to changes from canon, more deviations will come in the future, especially with events of the conclusion of Vol. 3 which subsequently changes Volumes 4 and 5. And then Volume 6 will set up for the bigger canon changes. Vol. 7 will serve as a sort of framework for starting Book 3, but beyond that I'm pretty certain almost all of it will be my original story up to the conclusion.**

**4\. Depending on how I feel, I might take a bit of a break from this series to make another fanfic after I'm done writing Vol. 3.Whether this happens or not remains to be seen, but worry not: I will always be sure to work on the Call Me V series.**

**Alright, with that outta the way, let's get to the actually interesting bits in the chapter!**

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

After spending the day setting up for the dance, and getting dresses for the occasion, Team RWBY, minus Blake, had gone back to their dorm room. Yang was rummaging through her possessions trying to find something while her Scroll played a slow dance song. Weiss was attempting, and so far failing, to teach Ruby to dance.

Ruby was by no means an elegant dancer, less so with the high heels she now wore. She barely knew how to walk in them, much less dance in them. Weiss hadn't had much luck getting her to learn; her sore feet could attest to that.

"Ruby, you dunce!"

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Dancing is so hard!"

"Just try to follow my lead."

"I am! But these lady stilts are stupid!"

"You're unbelievable sometimes! You have to wear heels to the dance, but you can barely walk in them, and you certainly can't dance with them."

"I've never needed heels before. They're dumb."

"I feel sorry for Nero given how much you'll be stepping on his feet. Again. From the top."

The silver eyed leader sighed, "Not again..."

"All right now left and right and forth and AUGH!"

"Sorry Weiss!"

"My feet, my poor little feet..."

Yang stopped her searching to clutch her stomach as she doubled over with laughter at the situation. However, the noise was interrupted by a knock at the door. Weiss stopped the music as Yang stopped laughing.

"Oh, maybe Blake's back!" Ruby said hopefully.

"But why would she need to knock?" Weiss pointed out.

"Hey Rubes, you there?"

Ruby became pale at the sound of Nero's voice at the door. Weiss was similarly alarmed while Yang grinned like a maniac.

"Hello? Anyone?"

"Maybe you should answer it, or maybe we should invite him in and show him your dancing skills!" Yang urged her sister jokingly.

"No! Nonononono! I forbid you to embarrass me like this!" Ruby refused.

"Well I have to embarrass you. It's part of the older sibling code."

"There's no such thing!" Ruby hissed.

"Ruby?" Nero knocked again. Finally, Yang opened the door partly.

"Hey there Nero! Nice of you to drop by!"

"Oh! Yang! Is Ruby there?"

The lilac eyed huntress glanced at her sister, who was out of view. The younger girl was shaking her head. No way was she going to have Nero see her in such an embarrassing situation!

"Nope. She's out right now."

"Oh. Well when she gets back, could you give her these?" Nero pulled out a bouquet of roses, "Just tell her they're from me and I hope she likes them."

"How sweet of you!" Yang mockingly gushed.

"Just take the damn flowers and shut up. Make sure they get to Ruby," Nero grew annoyed with Yang's comment.

"Alright. See you at the dance!"

"Uh-Huh."

Nero left, leading to Yang closing the door and turning back to her sister to hand her the roses.

"Well that was very nice of him," Weiss said while Ruby blushed and set them on top of the bookshelf next to their bunk bed.

"Now you owe me, sis," Yang crosses her arms.

"For what?" Ruby squeaked.

"For covering for you. If you kiss Nero at the dance, that'll be enough," Yang joked, returning to searching her belongings.

"K-k-k-kiss...w-wha?" Ruby stuttered with a spaced out look on her face. The rosette was clearly suffering a crippling amount of embarrassment.

"Even if she would do that, which I doubt, she still can't get to that point without being able to even walk!" said Weiss.

"Again?" the team leader sighed.

"Yes! We won't stop until you can reach at least twenty paces!" Weiss places a book o Ruby's head, "Remember, the key is balance. Walk without letting that fall."

"Awww," Ruby complained as she slumped forward, making the book fall and making Weiss groan. Ruby put the book on her head and began to walk.

"So, what do you think about what Nero told us?" Weiss asked Yang.

"About what?"

"His arm. That's definitely not natural. There's never been anything like it. I'd say it's a Faunus trait, but what he did to the Paladin with it isn't exactly something any lizard could do," Weiss said.

"Lizard?" Yang looked at the white haired heiress in confusion.

"His arm's scaly! I'm just making assumptions!"

"Rats!" Ruby shouted as the book fell off her head after five steps, "I don't think it really matters that much. He's a really good friend and the fact he's a bit different shouldn't change that. We already learned that lesson last Semester."

"I guess so," Weiss agreed with her partner.

"Aha!" Yang shouted in triumph as she held aloft...

A laser pointer.

"What's that for?" Weiss asked quizzically.

"It's all part of the plan. Worry not, Ice Queen," Yang smiled as she left the room, ignoring the glare she received from the mentioned girl.

"Darn it!" Ruby exclaimed in frustration as the book fell again, "Weiss, I can't do this thing! It's too hard!"

"Again."

"But—"

"Again!"

"Fine..."

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

Nero opened the door of his dorm room to find the shades drawn and the lights out, limiting his visibility. With a groan and an eye roll, the teen flicked the light switch to find V face-planted into his bed. The bed itself was disorganized and V himself looked a bit disheveled in contrast to his normally neat appearance.

"You alright bud?" Nero said as he closed the door and headed to his own bed.

"No," V replies, rolling on his side, then slowly rolled into his back and faced the ceiling. His hair was sticking straight up on one side while the other was matted down.

"Now I'm not a therapist. My advice is shit, but I suppose it's all you got right now," Nero sat down and clasped his hands, "So what is your problem?"

"I've never actually had romantic attraction to anyone before. I finally seemed to find the right girl and asked her to dance..."

"I know. I was there. Skip ahead a bit."

"I just don't understand this aching feeling in my chest."

"That's called a broken heart, V. You got dumped and now you feel like shit. You just gotta deal with it."

"But she discarded my affections so easily," V sat up, "It feels as though she took my emotions," he grabbed a sheet of paper, "And did this," he crushed it for emphasis.

"That's why they call it a crush. Get a straw and suck it up; this is very unlike you," Nero stood up again and headed to the closet to hang up his blue jacket.

"I'm aware of my odd behavior. I've just never had to deal with...heartbreak before," V laid back down, "Books make it sound easier to deal with than it is."

Nero crashed onto his bed, took out his Scroll, and began playing Candy Crush, "Well, If it makes you feel any better, I think Yang is trying to convince Blake to go to the dance."

Nero only heard V sigh at the mention of the object of his affections. The white haired teen rolled his eyes as he continued to match bits of colorful candy.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

The next day came and went in the blink of an eye. Before V and Nero knew it, they were standing outside the main hall of Beacon, now decorated for the dance. Both were dressed in their own suits, though Nero's right sleeve was a bit wider to make room for his Devil Bringer. V still had his cane with him.

"I suppose there's no point in delaying. Let us head inside," V stated simply.

The two boys walked through the doors to find Yang at a podium in a simple white dress and many of their classmates out on the dance floor already.

"Hey there boys!" Yang waved cheerily.

"Yang," Nero nodded, "Is Ruby here yet?"

"No, but she should be riiiight aboouut...now," Yang pointed behind the two as the doors opened to reveal Ruby struggling to walk through the doorway in her high heels. The girl wore a red dress with black lace and a black belt.

"Awwww, you look beautiful!" Yang exclaimed. Nero simply stared wide eyed.

"Well, I'll take my leave," V patted Nero's shoulder as he turned, "If you need me, I'll be by the punch bowl."

Nero didn't reply as his teammate walked away as his gaze was still transfixed on his date. Ruby simply pressed her index fingers together nervously, waiting for a response.

"You look...amazing," Nero said, unsure of what to do now.

"T-thanks..." Ruby said with a blush. She tried to walk forward again, only to trip on her shoes. Nero darted forward and caught her before she fell. They both blushed at the contact, but their thoughts were interrupted by a flash behind them.

"Definitely saving that one," Yang said, tapping her Scroll.

Nero rolled his eyes as he helped Ruby to her feet.

"How does Weiss even fight in these?" Ruby complained as Nero chuckled and took her hand. The white haired teen assisted his date in slowly making their way forward with her heels on. Yang smiled after them before the doors opened again to reveal a new figure.

"Glad you could make it," she grinned, "Last I heard, he's by the punch bowl."

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

V stood by the table with the punch bowl behind him. Most of the other students were chatting amongst themselves. Even some of the teachers were present and having their own conversations.

But the tattooed boy stood alone.

His fingers drummed on his cane as he sipped his punch. However, a tap on his shoulder brought his attention off his solitude. In front of him, he found Jaune standing in front of him.

"Hiding by the punch bowl to avoid contact with anyone?" The blonde knight asked.

"I suppose," V replied before looking around and deflected the question by asking, "Where's Pyrrha?"

"Um...uh..." Jaune stuttered at the question.

"Jaune..."

"Okay, okay! Look, I was going to ask Pyrrha at our normal training session, but I clammed up and couldn't bring myself to do it! Besides, I'm sure she's got someone else—"

As Jaune rambled on, V noticed Pyrrha walking out to a balcony alone. The black haired teen bonked Jaune on the head with his fist and pointed to Pyrrha, "Well, go talk to her now. She's alone."

"Dude, I said—"

"Just do it. Don't be an imbecile for once," V said. Jaune sighed in resignation, but he marched off to talk to his partner nonetheless.

V sighed, alone again. However, this bout of isolation was shorter than the first as a familiar blue haired student joined V and poured himself a cup of punch.

"Fancy meeting you here, Detective," Neptune turned around to face the center of the room with V.

"Right back at you, coffee-buying intern," V shot back, causing both teens to laugh.

"Lame dance, right?"

V raised an eyebrow.

"Cute girls though."

"You really are a shameless flirt."

Neptune put up his hands, "Guilty as charged."

V once again noticed an obvious lack of a female presence with a friend he was sure would have someone, "You seemed to be intent on seducing Weiss. What happened to that?"

Neptune cringed, "It...didn't work out."

"Mhm," V sipped his punch, clearly not buying what Neptune was selling.

The blue haired teen sighed in defeat, "I turned her down. I just didn't want to embarrass myself cause...this sounds so stupid, but I can't dance, man."

V nearly spit out his punch.

"I know, right? It's terrible!"

"Yeah, a terrible excuse. And the second bad excuse I've heard in the last five minutes!" V tapped the back of Neptune's head with the head of his cane, "You broke a girl's heart because you don't want to publicly admit you can't move to a rhythm."

"I guess I sound like a bit of a douchebag when you put it like that."

"You don't say?" V looked over at him, before putting an arm around his shoulder, "Okay, so you screwed up, but it's not terrible. You see right there?" V pointed to Weiss who sat alone on the edge of the room. Neptune nodded to his question.

"Good. Now what you're going to to, my blue-haired friend, is you're going to go over there, apologize, and then you're going to talk to her without your suave pickup lines and 'cool-guy' attitude."

"Seriously?"

"Don't question me, just go make her night and thank me later," V lightly shoved him forward. Neptune puffed up his chest a bit confidently before returning to normal and turning back to V.

"Hey, weren't you going to come with Blake?"

V frowned, "Well, she said she–"

"Was running a bit late," a new voice finished as Blake appeared behind V. She wore a purple dress with violet eyeshadow replacing the bags she had from lack of sleep. Neptune smiled before turning away to leave the two to their business.

"I thought you had more important things to do than a stupid dance?" V smirked slightly as he turned around to face Blake.

"Someone convinced me otherwise," Blake looked over to Yang, "I guess I got a bit too obsessed with the investigation and forgot to relax and have a little fun."

"Glad you realized that," V said. The two stood there for a moment.

"So are you going to ask me to dance or are we going to wait here all night?" Blake smiled and offered her arm. V returned the grin and lead her out to the dance floor.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

"Ow!" Nero exclaimed. He was currently slow dancing with Ruby, but unfortunately was getting his feet beaten up a bit.

"I'm so so sorry! I don't know how to dance, let alone walk in these!" Ruby apologized.

"Look, it's fine. I don't really mind. I'm surprised I haven't stepped on your feet, honestly," Nero attempted to reassure her before holding back a cringe of pain as she stepped on his foot again.

"I'm sorry!" Ruby began to tear up a little.

"Hey, don't cry," Nero lifted her chin a little with his hand. Suddenly, a lightbulb went of in his head. "I have an idea," Nero quickly lead her to the side.

"Take off your shoes," Nero said.

"What?" Ruby asked, perplexed at the situation.

"Just do it."

Ruby complied, leaving them to the side of the dance floor.

"Now step on top of my feet."

Ruby gave a confused look, still not understanding Nero's plan, but she did as he said. The two continued to dance with Nero leading. While Ruby might not be doing her own dancing steps, the motions were basically the same without the risk of her breaking her date's feet.

Ruby simply smiled as she continued to hold onto Nero, enjoying the small moment of happiness.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

V smiled as he saw his teammate's success with his date. V and Blake were also dancing to the slow music along with the crowd. The two hadn't spoken much since the start of the event.

"So," V attempted to start a conversation.

"So," Blake replied. The two returned to silence again.

"I trust you're happy with the dance so far?" V asked as he lifted his arm and Blake spun around.

"Well, at least you're a good dancer, otherwise I wouldn't be," Blake smiled, "Where did you learn?"

"I watched a few video tutorials to prepare. Griffon and Nero made fun of me for the rest of the week," V explained, making Blake laugh.

"You certainly put a lot of effort to try and impress," Blake looked away and frowned, "I'm...sorry. About before."

"There's no need to apologize," V reassured her, but she shook her head.

"But I—"

"Don't worry about it," V insisted again, "Just enjoy the night."

Suddenly Blake's eyes widened and she began to laugh. V raised an eyebrow as they stopped dancing; the black haired girl calmed down and pointed over V's shoulder, causing him to turn around.

"I might be scarred for life now."

Behind him, Jaune Arc was walking through the dance floor to Pyrrha.

And he was wearing a dress.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

"What the fuck?" Nero asked no one in particular as the crowd slowly stopped dancing and he and Ruby followed suit. Both of them ended up next to Ren and Nora.

"So...what's Jaune going for here?" Ruby asked the definitely not "together-together" teammates.

"No idea," Ren deadpanned.

They watched as Jaune and Pyrrha had a quick conversation before Jaune extended his hand, which Pyrrha accepted, and swept her off to the dance floor as the music picked up again.

"Ren, this...is...HAPENNING!" Nora shouted as she began to drag her partner over as he glanced to Nero.

"What's happening?"

"No idea," Nero managed to reply before true raven-haired boy was yanked away.

**(This was followed by a very choreographed dance scene which the author became to lazy to even attempt to write about. If you're really interested, the animation's on YouTube cause I can't describe that.) [Also, fun fact: Ren is the only member of JNPR not wearing a dress in this scene. What a loser.]**

"I think I need some air," Ruby said to Nero.

"Oh. Well, how about I grab your heels and we'll head outside?" Nero offered. Ruby nodded in agreement. The two weaved their way through the many dancers to the opposite side of the dance floor to retrieve Ruby's footwear before heading for the exit. Nero and Ruby stood together just outside the open doors of the hall, enjoying the cool breeze blowing through the night.

"I hope you don't want to leave the dance just yet, especially after I paid for this suit and all" Nero joked.

"No, of course not dummy," Ruby playfully punched him in the shoulder, "I just needed time to recover after that stunt."

Nero nodded at the reference to Jaune's antics, "I know what you mean."

Nero turned back to the dance floor and saw V and Blake dancing together and began to say, "Hey, Ruby, when did Blake decide to—"

Nero stopped his sentence as he turned to find her looking off towards the rooftops of a few nearby buildings. The white haired teen almost asked what she was looking at, but just as he was about to, he made out the faintest silhouette leaping from roof to roof.

"Bad guy?" he asked.

"I don't know," Ruby frowned before grinning and grabbing Nero's arm and pulling him away from the dance with her, "Lets find out!"

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

Cinder Fall smirked to herself. So far, her plan was going off without a hitch. Everyone in Beacon was distracted by the dance, and no one would notice the break-in until the day after. By that point, it would be far too late.

She just loved when her best laid plans went so well.

Cinder knife-handed the back of a guard's neck and dragged him into a bush, allowing her to walk through the front doors of the CCT without a problem.

As she walked through the lobby, one of the four guards within turned toward her.

"Excuse me, no one is allowed in this area," he said. Cinder rolled her eyes and didn't heed his warning, continuing to approach him. "Stop!" he ordered once more, raising his weapon. In response, Cinder ran towards the guard, prompting him to open fire. She managed to dodge to her left, grab the soldier's right arm and strike him on three side of the head. Another guard attempted to charge her, but she dispatched him with a kick to interrupt the attack and a gunshot to send him flying away before kicking the leg of the guard she was holding, flipping over him, and using he momentum to fling the unfortunate man into a nearby handrail.

The remaining guards both tried to rush their assailant with stun batons. Cinder spun away with a flare of fire Dust, creating two black blades and running at the approaching enemies. She easily batted aside the first one with two swift slashes and performed the same move on the second as well as kicking his legs out from underneath him. By this time, the first guard had recovered and once again attacked, but Cinder easily parried the blows. She swiftly counterattacked by elbowing him in the face and sticking him in the chest with both fists, finishing him off with a flip leading into a downward slash.

Cinder glanced about at her fallen opponents. Of course, there was no time to dawdle. The woman quickly made her way toward the elevator. The doors opened to reveal two more guards. Startled, they reached for their weapons. Cinder groaned in annoyance, pouncing at the first to grab him. With a grunt of effort, she picked up the guard and slammed him into his compatriot, knocking them both out on the floor of the elevator. After dispatching with those two, the woman dusted herself off and smirked.

Everything was going according to plan.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

Outside, Ruby and Nero finally got to the front of the CCT. Ruby gasped in shock, making Nero turn to her in concern and growl. They found an unconscious guard in a bush.

"Definitely a bad guy," Nero said as the two pulled doubt their Scrolls. Not a moment later, two rocket lockers crashed down in front of the entrance, and the Hunters in training grabbed their weapons and marched inside.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

The elevator reached the top floor, and Cinder stepped out into the room. She went straight to the desk immediately in front of her, accessed the computer in front of her, and got to work. Almost as soon as she started, Emerald spoke over her earpiece, "A party guest is leaving."

The amber eyed woman closed her eyes and sighed in annoyance, "Which one?"

"Ironwood!"

"I guess the general's had enough fun for one night," Mercury's voice commented over the line, "Should we stop him?"

Cinder wasn't concerned. With a few more clicks on the keyboard, the code on her screen switched over to a display of a black queen chess piece.

"No," Cinder smirked, "We're done here."

Cinder got up from her seat and started to walk back the way she came, but she came to a halt as she heard beeps from the elevator. Looking at the display above revealed it was ascending from the lower floors.

Someone else was in the tower.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

Nero loaded six bullets into Blue Roses with the words "Color Up" engraved on the side. He looked down to Ruby as they got closer to the top.

"Ready to be heroes?" Nero smirked. Ruby looked back up with a smile of her own before turning back to the doors as the elevator stopped.

When the doors opened, Nero immediately aimed into the room with his revolver and was the first to step out. Ruby followed soon after, scythe at the ready.

"Hello?" Ruby asked tentatively, "Anyone there?"

"Come our now and I might not blow your brains out!" Nero shouted, scanning around the room.

A woman dressed like a cat burglar stood up from behind one of the terminals, causing Nero and Ruby to swivel in her direction in an instant.

"Um, hi there!" Ruby waved as she turned to face the duo.

"This isn't a masquerade ball, honey," Nero quipped, "How about you take off that mask and—"

Suddenly, the intruder swiped a vial in front of them, creating multiple ice spikes from Dust and launching them at the students. Nero fired a Color Up round, destroying the foremost crystals while the mini explosions that followed the initial shot took care of the rest. He and Ruby opened fire on their opponent, but she simple deflected each shot with a wave of her hand before spinning backwards and creating two black swords.

Ruby charged for a downward slash, sticking the point of Crescent Rose into the ground but missing her target who jumped away. However, this did put the assailant in the path of Nero, who swooped forward and performed a rising slash, barely tagging the woman with his blade. This left him wide open, a fact which the unknown person capitalized on by creating a bow and firing three arrows at him.

Ruby gasped, understanding the danger he was in. She quickly activated her Semblance, crashing into Nero and taking them both out of the way of the explosion from the arrows impacting on the ground. The two soon recovered and stared down their attacker. Neither party made a move.

Finally, the moment was broken when the elevator doors were heard opening. Nero and Ruby looked back to see the new arrival was...

General Ironwood.

"Well, you sure took your sweet ass time getting here," Nero said, "We got the intruder right—" Nero turned back only to find that the woman had vanished, "—Here."

Ruby sat down as the General walked up to the two. Nero clenched his fists in frustration, shouting at the top of his lungs, "SON OF A BIIIIIIIIIIITCH!"

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

Emerald and Mercury were continuing to blend in with the crowd of students at the dance. They were interrupted as their leader, now clad in a black dress, tapped on Em's shoulder.

"Mind if I cut in?" she asked.

"Of course," the subordinate stepped aside, allowing Mercury and Cinder to dance.

"And how has your night been?" Mercury raised an eyebrow.

"A bit more...interesting than I would have liked," she admitted, "Nero might be more concerning, and less human, than we initially believed."

"Should we be concerned?" the mercenary asked. Cinder simply let out a dark chuckle.

"Of course not. Our plans are still in motion. We'll just put him on the list later. Regardless, no one will realize who was at the CCT tonight," Cinder smirked confidently.

"So what now?"

"Now?" Cinder's smile grew a little, "Enjoy the rest of our night. After all...

"It is a party."


	8. Chapter 8: The Man in Red

"They were here. Ozpin, they were HERE!" Ironwood slammed his fist on the desk in front of him.

The General was seething in fury. He, Glynda Goodwitch, and Ozpin were assembled in the Headmaster's office. The topic of discussion: the CCT break-in the previous evening.

"We're aware of the James. Thank you for the reminder," Glynda remarked.

"Fantastic! You're aware! Now are we going to take action or sit around twiddling our thumbs while our enemy is among us?" Ironwood replied.

The adults were interrupted as a *ding* sound rang from the elevator.

"Come in," Ozpin invited to the people outside. The doors opened as Nero and Ruby stepped into the room.

"Sorry it took so long. _Someone_ accidentally hit all the elevator buttons on the way up," Nero looked to his partner and smirked. Ruby blushed in embarrassment.

"It wasn't me!" she weakly defended herself.

"Thank you for coming, you two," Ozpin moved on, ignoring their banter, "How are you feeling?"

"If I'm being honest, pretty damn pissed," Nero huffed.

"Language!" Glynda reprimanded, making Nero roll his eyes.

"Well, I'm fine, but I'd be better if my villain-catching record wasn't O-for-three," Ruby smiled meekly. Nero offered one as well, though the adults in the room were still stone faced.

"Oh. I guess that's the mood we're going with..." she scratched the back of her head nervously.

"Nero, Ruby, I believe it would be appropriate to let you know that I believe what you did last might is exactly what being a Huntsman or Huntress is all about," Ironwood stepped up to the pair, "You recognized a potential threat and took action, performing in the best way you could."

"Uh...thank you sir," Ruby replies while Nero simply crossed his arms.

"Now, General Ironwood has already told us of the events that transpired last night," Ozpin stood up, "Now that you've rested, we'd like to ask you both if you have anything else you'd like to add."

"Was there anyone else with her? Did she look familiar to you at all?" Goodwitch asked.

"We already said no one else was there," Nero replied.

"I'm not sure who she was," Ruby added, "She was wearing a mask and didn't say anything to me. But she used some sort of glass weapons, but I'm not sure that was her Semblance. Her clothes lit up whenever she attacked."

Glynda frowned, "Besides the glass, that sounds exactly like the woman I fought when we met Ruby."

"Embedding Dust into clothes is an old technique; it could have been anyone," Ironwood shook his head.

"Do you think she has any relation to that Torchwick guy or the White Fang," Nero raised an eyebrow.

"It's possible, but we lack anything besides assumptions to link them together," Ozpin mused.

"Actually, I...I'm pretty sure I remember her saying something about a hideout or something or other in the southeast," Ruby lied. Nero looked at her without betraying his shock. She looked at him and gave a small wink on the side of her face the teachers couldn't see.

"Uh...yeah! Actually I think she said that it was just outside the kingdom!" Nero added, catching on to Ruby's plan.

"Interesting..."

"I thought you said the intruder never—" Glynda began before Ozpin cutting her off by saying, "Thank you both for your cooperation. Why don't you go spend some time with your teams? You have a big day ahead of you."

"Any time," Ruby smiled as she and Nero turned to leave.

"Ah yes, and one more thing," Ozpin added, causing his students to turn toward him, "Try to be...discreet about this matter."

"Aye aye, Captain," Nero mock saluted before he and Ruby returned to the elevator.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

As the doors slid shut, he let out a breath he didn't know he was holding and looked at Ruby.

"You're insane sometimes, you know that?" Nero scolded, but did so with a wide grin.

"I know," Ruby returned the smile. The two stood awkwardly looking away from each other as the elevator descended. Suddenly the both turned to each other.

"So I was—" they said simultaneously, "You go first," they said together, again, "No, you go first!"

Nero and Ruby began laughing at the situation; the latter insisted, "Okay, but you can go first. Seriously."

Nero stopped laughing and scratched the back of his head, "Okay, so I was wondering..."

"About?" Ruby prodded him.

"Well after we come back from our mission..."

"Yes?"

"I wanted to ask..."

"Yes?"

"Would you like to go out with me? I don't mean anything fancy, cause I know you don't like that, but we could go get cookies or something if you want to," Nero offered.

"Yes, of course!" Ruby exclaimed, hugging the white-haired teen who slowly returned it.

"Okay! It's a date then," Nero said as they broke apart. Ruby stood smiling for a while. However, after a moment she blushed as red as her cape at what he'd said.

Doesn't this technically mean...

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

"You're going on your first date?!?!" Yang squealed excitedly at her embarrassed younger sister who stood in front of her three teammates.

"I-I guess..." Ruby rocked back and forth on her heels.

"Well, I'll get to teaching you proper etiquette later—" Weiss started.

"Because I heard that went so well for teaching her to walk and dance in heels," Blake sarcastically remarked.

"However," Weiss frowned at being cut off, "For now, you need to tell us what happened."

"Yeah, what did Ozpin and them say?" Yang asked as she, Weiss, and Blake leaned in to listen to their leader.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

"Well, there we have it! We should send as many troops there as possible to find out exactly what's going on and destroy any forces in our way," Ironwood boldly suggested in typical Atlesian militaristic fashion. Glynda growled and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Why does every solution you come up with have some sort of massive display of military power?" she asked disdainfully, "This isn't a contest of measuring di—"

"Glynda!" Ozpin reprimanded his assistant.

"Well, I'm just speaking the truth," she huffed.

"She's right," Ozpin began, "I too would love to end this problem as swiftly as possible, but this may go beyond Beacon, maybe even beyond Vale. The situation in the southeast is volatile as is with some reports of some...bizarre "Grimm." To make such a move when we know so little would be folly."

"Oz," James put his hands on the professor's desk and sighed, "I've worked with you for years, but if you really intend to hold the defenses and wait until our enemy is on top of us—"

Ozpin held up a hand to cut off the General. After taking a sip of his coffee, standing up, and walking over to gaze out of the office window, he spoke, "I understand you're a general, James. You of all people should know that one ought to send in the scouts before the flag bearer."

He continued, "Nero is undoubtedly one of the most curious cases this year, especially with that arm of his. He could be incredibly powerful, but unlike V, we lack any knowledge about any farthest extent of his abilities or how connected he is to demons. That's why I've called in a professional."

Glynda's eyes widened in shock before narrowing in annoyance and anger, "You're not seriously calling in that...that incessantly annoying, arrogant wombat!"

"Despite his attitude, he is best equipped to handle the situation at hand. While Team RWBY is in Mountain Glenn, he and the boys can investigate the demonic activity," Ozpin explained, "All that time, they solve our problem and we could potentially have more light shed onto them."

"I hope you know what you're doing Ozpin," James grumbled, rubbing his temples as he caught onto who they were discussing.

The elevator to the office dinged and a new figure stepped in without an invitation.

"Well, hope I'm not too late to the party. What'd I miss?"

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

"That was incredibly risky of her," V stroked his chin in contemplation as he sat on his bed. He abruptly stood and began pacing the dorm room. Nero simply shrugged his shoulders and as he laid on his bed.

"Pretty badass if you ask me," he said, "I kind of liked that."

"Regardless of your appreciation of your girlfriend's actions, we do have to take into consideration the consequences this raises for us and Team RWBY," V mused and turned to Nero, "What we did that night was completely unauthorized and not entirely legal."

Nero sat up to look at his roommate in the eyes, "From what I can tell, Ozpin isn't about to do that. Dante and Team STRQ got in worse trouble back in their day and they did just fine."

V cocked an eyebrow at that, "And how do you know that?"

"I literally knew three of STRQ's members back when I was a kid on Patch, V."

"Touché."

"Anywho," Nero hopped off his bed and grabbed his jacket off of a nearby chair, "I'm pretty sure we need to head down to the amphitheater or something to get our mission assignment."

A smug grin graced V's features, "Look at you, sounding responsible for once instead of blowing things off!"

"Fuck off. I can be responsible when I want to be!" Nero huffed as they walked down the hall.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

"Settle down students! Quiet please," Professor Goodwitch spoke into the microphone. A large gathering of students were in front of the stage from all of the major Huntsman academies present for the Vytal Festival. Nero and V slipped in as Goodwitch commanded the student's attention, settling next to Teams RWBY and JNPR. As they did, the professor stepped back to allow Ozpin to take the microphone.

"Today we stand together, united," the Headmaster began before indicating towards each section for each nation, "Mistral. Atlas. Vacuo. Vale. The four Kingdoms of Remnant. On this day, nearly eighty years ago, the largest war in recorded history came to an end. It was a war of ignorance, of greed, and of oppression. A war that was about much more than where borders fell or who traded with whom, but about the very idea of individualism itself. We fought for countless reasons, one of which being the destruction of all forms of art and self-expression. And as you are well aware, that was something many could not stand for. As a result, those who opposed this tyranny began naming their children after one of the core aspects of art itself: color."

By this time in Ozpin's history speech, Ruby noticed Nero had fallen asleep standing up, so she gave him a light smack on the back of the head, making him wake up and frown at her. The silver eyed girl simply smiled innocently and turned back to the stage.

"It was their way to demonstrate that not only would they refuse to tolerate this oppression, but neither were the generations to come. And it was a trend that is held to this very day. We encourage individuality, expressionism, and unity through diversity. As I have said, today we stand together, united. But this bond cannot exist without effort. Which is why today, while the rest of the world celebrates peace, Huntsmen and Huntresses will work to uphold it. As first year students, you will be tasked with shadowing a professional Huntsman or Huntress on a mission. Some of you may be taken out of the Kingdom for several days. Others may work within the walls for the rest of the week. But no matter which path you choose, remember to be safe, remember your training, and remember to do your very best."

At the conclusion of the speech, Ozpin walked off the stage to the applause of the students while RWBY, V, and Nero gathered together to the side.

"This is perfect!" Ruby exclaimed, "We just have to shadow a Huntsman working in the southeast!"

"Yeah! We'll walk around with them by day and slip away at night!" Yang agreed.

"Hopefully there's more than one job there," Nero muttered, "I don't wanna get placed with some stupid job like Perimeter Duty."

"Well, lets start by checking Search and Destroy," Weiss said as the group approached the holographic monitor. Underneath the mentioned option was a simple info-blurb, reading 'High Grimm Activity, Quadrant 5. Mission Start: ASAP.'

"Alright, Quadrant 5 needs Grimm cleared out!" Ruby cheered.

"It is in the southeast," Blake said.

"Sounds perfect!" Yang followed. Ruby tapped the screen and imputed their team's name. However, rather than showing the mission as accepted, red text saying 'Mission unavailable for first years' popped up.

"What?" Nero exclaimed in frustration.

"Any other ideas?" Blake asked. Ruby scratched her head and began to think.

"Let me try," V offered as he stepped up to the monitor.

"But it said 'unavailable for first years,' not 'unavailable for Team RWBY,'" Weiss pointed out. V rolled his eyes.

"Doesn't hurts to try," he countered, typing VN (Vermillion) and meeting the same result of a screen of red text. Rather than the previous error, this one read 'Invalid input: Team VN preciously assigned mission.' The statement caused a bit of confusion among them.

"But we didn't even select anything yet..." V said, baffled by this new development.

"Oh, I know!" Ruby piped up, responding to Blake's earlier question, "We mail ourselves there!"

She was meet by the stares and silence of her friends, causing her to grin sheepishly.

"I suppose that is one idea," a new voice said. V's back straightened as he recognized Professor Ozpin approaching the six students.

"Unfortunately, we determined that the concentration of Grimm was too extreme for first-year students. It seems that particular region is rather popular," Ozpin continued, shaking his head and concluding, "In fact, I have the sneaking suspicion that you all will somehow make your way there no matter which job you choose."

Yang, Blake, and Weiss all flared at their leader, who kept up her nervous grin and rubbed the back of her head, innocently asking, "What makes you say that?"

"I'm still curious how you all found yourself at the docks last semester. I'm interested to know how you and Mister Angelo really learned about a hideout in the southeast. And I certainly wonder why witnesses reported seeing robots rampaging through streets with rose petals and strange creatures chasing after them."

Ruby and V cringed at the last part of Ozpin's statement. The latter drummed his fingers on his cane while Ruby sputtered out an attempt at a response.

"I doubt I'll ever find the exact answers I'm looking for," Ozpin shrugged and smiled, "So how about this: instead of waiting for you all to break the rules, why don't we just bend them?"

With a few taps on the tablet in his hand, the display changed to show the assignment being given to Team RWBY.

"As for you two," Ozpin turned to Nero and V, "I've already given you a...special assignment. You'll be taking the same airship as Team RWBY and you'll meet your chaperone there."

"We won't let you down, Professor," Ruby affirmed with nods from her teammates.

"Thank you," V said.

"Do not thank me for this. Teamwork and persistence have carried you far. But you must understand, the things that await you beyond the protection of the Kingdom will not care. Stay close to your Huntsman at all times. Good luck."

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

Team RWBY and VN exited the auditorium and made their way towards their airship to take them off on their first mission.

"Well, wasn't good ol' Ozzy just a little ray of sunshine," Nero remarked.

"He's telling the truth," Blake said.

"The world isn't exactly kind to teenagers," V agreed.

"It's going to be tough, but we can do it guys!" Ruby said.

"Hey, Team CFVY is back!" a random student cut off the group, running past them. The six teens turned to the group of students watching the second-year team's return. Coco Axel, Fox Alistair, Velvet Scarlatina, and Yatsuhashi Daichi all walked single file through the crowd.

"Velvet, are you okay?" Blake approached the girl.

"I'm alright. I had Yatsu to look out for me," the rabbit Faunus smiled as the rest of Team RWBY joined their teammate as well as V and Nero.

"Your mission was supposed to end a week ago! What happened?" Weiss asked in concern.

Velvet looked down, "Nothing happened. It was just...there were just so many..." she looked up to see RWBY's worried expressions and quickly reassured them, "Oh, but don't worry. You first-years are just shadowing Huntsmen, so you should be fine."

"Right," Yang drawled.

"I should go. Be safe, okay?" Velvet said before she jogged after her team.

"This should be loads of fun," Nero commented as their group of six once again continued to their airship.

"We'll all be fine!" Ruby claimed, "Besides, we're going to be shadowing actual Huntsmen!"

"Yeah!" Yang cheered as they stopped in front of the aircraft. However the mood was quickly dampened once again as they all looked at the man standing in front of their Bullhead with stunned expressions.

"Hello kids! Who's ready to fight for their lives!" Professor Oobleck said with great enthusiasm.

"Uhhh..." Weiss turned to V, "I think he's yours."

"I'm afraid not Miss Schnee!" Oobleck corrected the girl as he checked his watch, "Team VN has a different chaperone! Unfortunately, theirs has quite a propensity for being late."

V massaged his temples at the thought of a lazy Huntsman in a potentially dangerous situation. His depression was interrupted by the cheers and applause of students behind them. The group turned to find a mob of students surrounding a central figure. The din created was unintelligible and the crowd prevented any sight of the figure of the fanfare.

"Who could that be?" Blake asked.

"He always was a bit of a showboat," Oobleck groaned.

The unknown figure finally freed himself from the crowd and stepped up to them. While they didn't know him before, they certainly did now from his trademark white hair and red coat.

"Oh. My. GOSH!" Ruby squealed.

"Is that—?" Weiss asked in shock.

"Hello kiddos," he said, "Who's ready for a fun-filled vacation with Uncle Dante?"


	9. Not Really A Chapter

**Hey guys! Sorry about the fact that I haven't been able to update lately. I've been transitioning into college life so I've been pretty occupied. To tide you lot over until the next chapter, I decided to give you guys a little scene I forgot to include in a previous chapter that will give a bit of an idea as to what's coming up, so here ya go!**

**(Note: this takes place before Part 8: The Man in Red)**

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

An Empusa skulked about the test chamber, observed by cameras and bulletproof windows on an upper balcony. A large, glowing stone slab was against the far wall, connected by wires to ports into a room below the chamber. Up in the viewing box, a few scientists sat in front of terminals while White Fang guards stood by the entrance. A man with brown hair, dark skin, glasses, and a long white coat stood in a more central position, quickly taking notes.

"Absolutely fascinating! W-we've f-finely m-made progress in this p-p-project!" the man stuttered as he wrote. Behind him Cinder Fall stood with Roman Torchwick.

"Well good for you, Egghead, you got your little pets to leave home," Roman mocked as he lit a cigar.

"Now now, Roman," Cinder chastised him, "No need to be so cynical. Agnus's success with the Hell Gate means we're closer to fulfilling our plan," the woman smiled coldly, "That is, he can provide more spectacular results."

Agnus turned around to the two guests present, "O-of course, I will d-do my b-best, but I'm not sure that the Y-Yamato being in its...c-current state...c-could be h-harnessed t-to summon much m-more powerful d-demons—"

"But I'm sure you'll do it, won't you Agnus?" Cinder walked forward and placed a hand on his shoulder, "You wouldn't want to disappoint our master and mistress now, would you? Especially after all they've given you..."

Agnus shuddered with fear, "O-of course n-not! We will produce stronger s-specimens by the t-time they w-will be r-required!"

"Good. Now, first year students will be leaving in two days for their missions; I need to head back before anyone gets suspicious I trust you and Roman will keep your operations running smoothly?"

"Y-Yes ma'am," Agnus strained a smile at the threat.

"Yeah, yeah, me and the mutts got it covered," Torchwick grunted.

"Good," Cinder smirked and turned to leave, "I'll be in touch."

As the click-clack of her heels faded into the distance, Agnus let out a breath he had been subconsciously holding. Roman simply dropped his cigar on the floor and rubbed it out under his shoe.

"Well, best of luck to you, Bag-O-Stutters," the crook poked Agnus as he left too. Agnus pinches the bridge of his nose in frustration as he turned back to a console in front of him and pressed an intercom button.

"M-move the test subject to t-the holding containers and p-prep for the next s-summoning."

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

**Like I said, sorry for the delays. I'll try to get the next chapter out as soon as possible. Until then, have a good one!**


	10. Chapter 9: Mission: Probably Possible

**And so with this chapter, this becomes my longest book I've written so far. Huzzah!**

**Also also, since I have my own laptop now, I decided to start typing my stories there (surprise! I've been writing all these on my phone this whole time!). I've found I can type a lot faster, so hopefully that will mean more productivity! **

**Also also, triple upload today! Sorry I take so long on the Wattpad to conversion. I'm just busy with IRL shit and sometimes forget. Sorry. :(**

**Anywho, without further ado, let's begin!**

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

"Well, you two must be Nero and V! Not sure what kind of name 'V' is, but I guess it's not my place to judge," Dante exclaimed enthusiastically, reaching out his hand to them. V shook his hand respectfully despite the remark, but Nero just crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.

"Ouch," Dante sighed jokingly, "Cool arm though!" he then turned to Oobleck, "Well, Professor Doctor Sir! Good to see you again. It's been too long!"

"Not long enough if you ask me," the green haired professor stated.

"Yikes. Does every teacher here really still hate me that much?" Dante smirked.

"I don't think anyone will ever forgive you for the Noodle Incident."

Dante chuckled, "Guess not. Anyway!" he suddenly shouted, startling the students present, "We've got some stuff to do, monsters to kill, and stylishness to be had, so let's get our asses on that ship!" he finished by pointing to the airship and marching ahead. The students stood still at the odd behavior of the man.

"He's...eccentric," Blake said as Ruby suddenly grabbed her shoulders and shook her.

"OH MY GOD! Do you know who that was?" the fangirling leader shouted.

"Dante Redgrave. Probably the strongest and most troublesome student in Beacon history," V answered.

Yang purred as the Huntsman walked away, causing the rest of the group to sweatdrop a little.

Oobleck turned back to the students, "Well, no time for admiring! You won't be needing your bags since you'll both be shadowing Huntsmen on what are essentially reconnaissance missions. I already covered everything, even things for your mission due to my lack of trust that Mr. Redgrave did it for you," the professor pointed to the boys before suddenly whipping around and marching to the aircraft, "Come now children! We are three minutes behind schedule already!"

The six teens stood in utter disbelief at the situation. V finally broke the silence, dryly, "Well, looks like we're off to save the world."

"At least you guys got the second most bestest Hunter ever for your mission!" Ruby pouted. Nero rubbed the back of his head and chuckled at the less fortunate situation of Tema RWBY.

"Did someone say 'save the world?'" a hyperactive girl shouted from behind them. The group turned their heads to find Nora and Team JNPR walking up to them.

"You're going on world saving missions without me? I'm hurt! Sad! Maybe even a little hungry?" Nora rattled off.

"Sounds exciting!" Jaune cut off his hyperactive teammate, "Where you headed?"

"Just outside the kingdom," Ruby said. Nora's face lit up at that.

"Hey! We are too!"

"Ren and Nora wanted to Shadow the sheriff of a nearby village," Pyrrha explained their mission.

"We leave tomorrow," added Ren.

As he finished his statement, a familiar blue-haired ladies' man and monkey Faunus walked up.

"Well, you can party with the coolest guys on campus tonight then!" Neptune smiled widely, "We're shadowing a crime specialist. All inner-city detective stuff."

V smirked, "Did you really enjoy us imitating law enforcement so much you decided to actually become an officer? I hope they don't recognize you."

"Ha ha, I'll be fine," Neptune shot back, "Anyway, we're getting junior badges too!"

"We normally go to the city with you guys, which means stuff's always going," Sun stopped to mime an explosion with his hands, "So we thought this might be a better way to check out the kingdom when it's, you know...normal."

"Well—"

"Excuse me kiddos!" Dante peaked his head out of the airship, "Hate to interrupt your incredibly important conversation, but we have places to go and monsters to kill!" he ducked back in, only to reappear a moment later and add, "Also, Bleckie is annoying me with his punctuality obsessions, so if you could get onto the ship so he can stop, that'd be appreciated."

Neptune, Sun, and JNPR were all standing still with mouths agape at the appearance of the Legendary Huntsman.

"You get to shadow Dante freaking Redgrave?!" Neptune exclaimed in jealousy, "That guy practically invented Style!"

V merely chuckled and shook his head at the bluenette's comment as he and the others went toward the ship. As they got on board, Dante gave an odd look to Nero before shuffling over.

"Y'know, I've met a lot of fans, but I haven't seen one who dyed their hair—"

"This is my natural hair color, jackass," Nero deadpanned. Dante raised his hands in mock surrender and backed up, grabbing a handhold as they took off.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

The aircraft continued to fly towards the outskirts of Vale at a rapid rate. It's occupants remained silent as the engines roared.

"Y'know, I'm surprised they decided to send you out into the field, Professor Doctor Sir!" Dante shouted to his fellow Huntsman over the din from the ship.

"No need to insult me, Mr. Redgrave. You should know despite my intellectual nature, I've had my fair share of tussles," the history teacher responded.

Ruby tilted her head in confusion, "Like the mushroom."

"Those are truffles," Yang corrected her. Ruby tilted her head to the opposite side.

"Like the vegetable?"

"Those are Brussels," Nero shook his head and ruffled Ruby's hair, causing her to blush a deep shade of red.

"Well!" Dante suddenly clapped his hands together, "As adorable as that scene was, I just want to warn the boys we are approaching the drop zone, so say your goodbyes to your lady friends because after this, it's ADVENTURE TIME!"

"We're not—" Blake, V, Ruby, and Nero said indignantly before stopping as they realized they talked together. While the two pairs of lovebirds sputtered a bit, Yang turned to Dante.

"So, you single?" she asked him casually.

"Pfft," Dante waves his hand, "Of course not! My three loves are pizza, my weapons, and fighting!"

"Must be a lonely life."

"Eh, my landlord being on my ass about rent tends to make you forget about all that," the Huntsman shrugged, "Least I got a roommate to pay it off for me, like, ninety percent of the time."

While Dante was busy thinking about his bachelor crisis, V turned to the cat Faunus next to him.

"Guess I'll see you later?" V looked at Blake. She smiled back up to him.

"I guess so. Good luck with your mission."

V leaned down and gave Blake a small kiss on the forehead, causing her to become stiff as a board and blush furiously as he said, "You too."

Weiss and Yang were shocked by the sudden move while Nero and Ruby began to fidget a little as hey stood next to each other.

"Nice going Romeo," Dante patted him on the shoulder and looked out the open doors. He extended his arm and pointed to a small set of ruins nearby, "You see that?" Nero and V nodded, prompting him to continue, "Thats where we're headed."

"Is the ship just going to drop us off or—" Nero began to ask.

"Nope!" Dante cut him off and gave a shit-eating grin, "As is Beacon tradition, you'll be falling and making your own landing strategy! If you don't land on target, just make your way through the ruins; I'll probably find you eventually."

"Probably?" V shouted in shock.

"Landing strategy?" Nero was confused.

"Right. You didn't do the orientation test thing," Dante stroked his chin before his eyes lit up, "All right, the newbie goes first!"

Nero recoiled in shock, "What? That's a terrible —"

His protests were cut off by Dante shoving him out the aircraft.

"Nero!" Ruby cried out.

The Huntsman turned to the now frightened V.

"You want a little help getting out to or..."

"No, I'm quite fine myself," he managed to say as he walked up to the edge. Before he jumped, he turned and gave a little wave to the remaining passengers and stepped off the ship into the open air.

Dante smirked as he followed, shouting "Jackpot!" as he backflipped off the edge and dove through the air after the two unfortunate students.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

Nero was expecting a lot of things to happen when Dante of all people was assigned as V and his babysitter for their mission, but getting thrown out of an airship before he could even say goodbye to his kind-of sort-of-not-really girlfriend?

Definitely not one of them.

As the white haired teen flailed about in the air, he forced himself to calm down. The ground was approaching fast and there was very little he could do. Looking around the ruins he was landing in, he noticed a decrepit clocktower. Thinking quickly, he Snatched the top of it, grappling forward and swinging through a hole in the clock face, rapidly jumping through the rusted mechanisms and walls within until he reached the bottom and burst out the front door, panting heavily.

_What...the...actual...fuck..._

As he regained his composure, he looked up to see V gracefully float to the ground, held aloft by Griffon. Behind V, Dante came rocketing towards the ground, although his appearance had changed. He had a reptilian appearance, with sharp edges on his arms and the back of his head, glowing cracks on his chest, talons on his hands and feet, and wings that were slowing his descent. Upon landing, a red flash surrounded him and he turned back to his normal appearance.

"Quite a Semblance you have there," V said.

"Yeah, well, the stories aren't ever entirely true, and that wasn't a Semblance," Dante corrected, getting confused looks from the teens. "Ah, don't worry about it, I'll explain later."

Nero stood up and pointed at Dante, "Next time you throw me out of an airship, I'm gonna kick your ass, you hear?"

Dante smirked, "I'd like to see you try, deadweight."

Griffon loudly guffawed before V hushed him. Nero stared angrily at Dante.

"What did you just call me?"

"You heard me, Deadweight," Dante smirked, "Just sayin that because 1," he began to count off his fingers, "Unlike Mr. Chad V over there, you never worked it up to even give a slight kiss to your girl and 2, you had to have me push you out of the airship rather than jumping yourself."

"That doesn't mean shit!" Nero retorted.

"Well, until I'm sufficiently convinced that you're not deadweight, I shall continue to call you that, Deadweight."

Nero growled and suddenly slashed at Dante with Red Queen. The blow was easily blocked by the older Huntsman with his own sword, Rebellion, causing Nero to grunt in frustration as he felt himself get pushed back.

"Look, don't take it too seriously, alright? It's just a nickname man," Dante brushed of the strike. Nero sheathed his sword on his back again while Dante did the same.

"That was exciting and all, but can we just get to the damn point as to what we're doing here?" Griffon interrupted. Dante looked over to the bird.

"Y'know, you seem awfully familiar..." Dante thought for a few moments before shaking his head, "Probably just Deja Vu. Anyway! We're going to be looking around to see if there are any signs of Demons or any evil lairs, so let's start adventuring!"

"Wait, wait, Demons?" V asked, "Don't you mean Grimm?"

"Nope. Demons," Dante repeated, "Thats also something else I forgot to go over. Basically, they're literal demons from hell and they can vary from being fairly easy to deal with to "Oh my god, what the fuck is happening?" levels of bs. Also, the general populous isn't aware of their existence yet, so try to keep it that way. Anyway, this way to the party!" Dante pointed in a random direction and began to walk off, Nero and V trailing behind with Griffon perched on V's arm.

"Wait, doesn't that mean your not-Semblance is just you turning into—" Nero started before being cut off again.

"Don't ask too many questions, Deadweight! The readers are still catching up to all our bs and probably want to get to the action-y goodness, so stop delaying them!" Dante shouted back to them.

Nero, Griffon, and V once again looked at each other before shrugging and continuing after the apparently insane Demon Hunter.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

"Well that was a productive day," Griffon sarcastically remarked as the four of them stopped on the sidewalk in front of a dilapidated building.

"Unfortunately, despite me often wishing otherwise, not all missions are immediately exciting," Dante lamented, "And since we're out in the middle of nowhere, that means no pizza!"

"Is pizza the only thing you care about?" V sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"What? Of course not!"

"Whenever you say that, it usually means that you do."

"That's a complete lie and you can't prove it's the truth!"

"Well, back on the airship—"

V and Dante's bickering was cut off by a window shattering next to them, prompting then to look over to their third companion putting his leg back down after kicking something.

"Would you two stop with that? You're getting on my nerves," Nero complained.

"That's hardly a reason to kick a stone through a window," V said.

Nero looked around a bit in a mocking fashion before shrugging his shoulders, "Doesn't look like this place is too busy. Which is making me a little bit bored cause absolutely nothing has happened today besides me getting thrown out of the airship! Where are these demons you talked about anyway?"

Dante shrugged and simply turned back to open the door of the shop, saying, "You probably don't want to be that eager to see them."

V looked through the broken window into the abandoned shop, as Dante kicked down the door.

"So this is where we're staying tonight?"

"Not exactly a five star hotel, but it'll do," the experienced hunter replied as he tossed their sleeping mats inside, "Once you guys get settled, I'll take first watch. Do you need a cage for the bird?"

"Ha ha, very funny asshole," Griffon said as he flew in through the window and perched on a shelf.

"As long as nothing crazy happens until morning, we should be fi—"

Dante's words were cut off by the sound of stone crumbling away and the surprised yelp of one of the students accompanying him. He didn't turn around as he asked, "The street behind me just fell away?"

"Yep," V responded.

"Deadweight fell down?"

"Mhm."

"Probably in mortal danger in a secret underground villain lair?"

"Most likely."

Dante pauses for a few moments before ordering, "Alright, grab your chicken. We need to go rescue him. Sleep can wait."

"What the fuck is with everyone making chicken jokes about me? Not every bird is a gods damn chicken!" Griffon complained as he swooped back out, though neither V nor Dante paid it any mind as they turned to the large hole in the ground where Nero once stood.

"Well, time to rescue Deadweight. Hopefully he's not dead by the time we get down there," Dante joked, before jumping down and shouting, "Geronimo!"

V simply sighed and leapt down after him with Griffon to go save their missing teammate.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

Nero grunted as his back impacted on a solid concrete floor. Hard. He groaned as he slowly sat up and regained his bearings.

Definitely a worse landing strategy than last time.

Nero didn't have time to bemoan about his troubles, though. He found he was in some sort of dark tunnel with rails below him. No living being was in sight, Grimm or otherwise. However, there was a distinct scent of blood, and an ominous aura permeated the air around him.

What the fuck is, a haunted subway tunnel?

Nero took some time to examine his surroundings a little closer as his eyes adjusted to the lower level of light. Looking down each way, he found no trains or any sign of an exit. However, looking down the right end of the tunnel caused his right arm to start throbbing. It wasn't painful, but something dangerous was down that path. Nero thought about waiting for his companions, but some bizarre force compelled him to walk forward. Slowly stepping across the rails, the white-haired teen made his way down the tunnel.

A few minutes passed with no sign of anything, though the feeling Nero had before did not dissipate; in contrast, it seemed to intensify as he eventually came up to a door that read "Emergency Exit." Whatever was causing the unnatural feeling lay beyond this door. His human hand reached for the handle, and after a moments hesitation, he pushed it open.

After stepping inside, he found himself in a stairwell, but rather than leading up to the surface, the stairs in front of him lead down, further into darkness. Once again, Nero contemplated turning back, and again, he found himself being urged onward.

The next thing he knew, he was at the bottom of the steps in front of another door, this one without a label. Opening it he had to raise his right hand to shield his eyes as he found himself almost blinded by light. Inside, rather than finding another derelict room, he was greeted by white hallways and bright lights.

Oddly bright and sterilized facility hidden in a dark underground area? This place just screams "Evil Villain Lab."

Nero drew Blue Rose and began cautiously making his way through the hallways, turning a corner and leaving the entrance behind him.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

V touched down in the tunnel just after Dante, blinking a little to get his eyes adjusted to the area.

"Well, no sign of Deadweight anywhere," Griffon pointed out.

"Come now, Griffon, must you refer to Nero in such a derogatory way as well?" V asked.

"Eh, I just think it's pretty hilarious."

"So what do you think Dante?" V turned to the Huntsman. He was quiet, unlike his more talkative attitude earlier. His eyes narrowed as he looked around the tunnel.

"I'm not sure exactly where hew went," Dante began, then pointed down to the right, "But there's some serious demonic energy coming from somewhere that way. If Nero is what I think he is, then he's that way."

V's face donned a perplexed look as Griffon once again became tattoos on his skin, "Demonic energy? Look, Dante, I have no idea what's going on here, so could you please catch me up."

"Come on. I'll explain on the way," Dante simply waved him forward as he began to walk.

After V crossed the track and caught up, Dante started, "Given your semi-bookworm nature, I'm sure you know about the Legendary Dark Knight Sparda, right?" V nodded in confirmation, "Well, it's not like he killed every demon in existence. They're all trapped in the Underworld, but occasionally, a few slip through the cracks."

"So you're saying that demons are real and some of them trickled in to here," V said to attempt to clarify the situation. In response, Dante chuckled.

"Not quite the case here," Dante stroked his chin in thought, "Okay, I think I've got a good analogy. Pretend you have a pizza box..."

"Oh boy," V rolled his eyes.

"You gonna let me finish?" V fell silent and the demon hunter continued, "The inside of the pizza box is the Underworld, where all the demons are. So this pizza box is taped shut so the stuff inside can't go outside, but there are some very small gaps between the tape where stuff can get out with some difficulty. Now imagine if you could just," Dante mimed scissors, "Cut the tape."

V's eyes widened, "And more things inside-"

"Come pouring out," Dante finished, shrugging his shoulders, "To be fair, this doesn't seem like it'll be that large. I've had, like, two or three much bigger issues before."

"Still this seems concerning," V mused, looking back at Dante, "And what of that other comment? About what Nero is?"

Dante raised his eyebrows, "Kid, I don't know if you somehow think otherwise, but his right arm is definitely not human. Looks to me like some sort of manifested form of his demonic power."

"But how could a human be born with the power of a demon?"

Dante shrugged again, "Wouldn't be the first time. Or the second, actually."

"What's that-"

Dante held up a hand to interrupt V's train of questions as a new object came into view: a slightly ajar door labeled "Emergency Exit." Dante smiled to the student, "Looks like we found your buddy."

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

"Agnus, sir, there's something you might want to see," a man waved the head scientist down. The scientist in question walked over to the station and looked at the screens. On them were security camera feeds of the whole facility.

"W-what appears to be the issue?" Agnus inquired.

"Monitors 36 and 24, sir."

Agnus turned to the mentioned feeds and frowned. There was a teenager, likely a Huntsman-in-training, alone on one monitor, prowling the halls. The second was more concerning: it contained the boy his and Cinder's mistress designated as...dangerous and important...and the other...

It was Dante.

Of all the people to waltz into his lab, it just had to be the Legendary Demon Hunter.

Agnus growled uncharacteristically and immediately gripped the man's shoulder.

"Send a message down to the containment units," Agnus ordered. His stutter was now replaced with a dark and menacing tone. The worker gulped in nervousness and patched him through.

"We have some...uninvited guests. I need our best and strongest specimens evacuated to our secondary location. Leave some of the lesser demons behind as distractions. And have someone prepare to remove the Yamato as well, and make sure he has some form of backup! We cannot lose our research, and we certainly cannot afford to lose that blade!"

Agnus shut off the communication and turned back to the security officer, "Have anyone not involved with my orders leave the facility. I must go and disable the Hellgate," he finished before stalking off, leaving the subordinate to frantically relay the message.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

Nero continued through the facility. So far, only locked doors, intersections and stairwells had greeted him, and he was getting frustrated at his lack of results. Suddenly, the lights flickered as he rounded another corner.

"Big shot villain secret headquarters can't afford to keep the lights on?" Nero muttered to himself as the hallway he was in was plunged into darkness as the emergency lights flickered on.

Nero continued at a slower pace, cautious of his surroundings. Not too soon after, a clicking noise broke the silence. Nero tensed up.

That doesn't sound like any Grimm I know.

Nero leveled Blue Rose forward, proceeding down the hall as the noises grew. Finally, he came around the corner and was treated to seeing three odd insect-like creatures. Their faces were similar to that of a multi-eyed but, but in the middle of their face, they had a bizarre human looking face on it. Thankfully, they hadn't noticed him yet.

"What the fuck..." Nero muttered.

That got them to look up.

"Ah shit."

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

**I'm not good at descriptions, but I'll just say Nero's got some Empusa to deal with.**


	11. Chapter 10: The Real Title is Too Long

Nero grabbed the demon in front of him and slammed it into the ground violently three times. It's two companions charged him, forcing him to dodge to the side. He followed up by launching one into the air, jumping up to it to slash it around a few times, and finished it off by using his Devil Bringer to throw it into the ground and shooting it three times in the head with Blue Rose as its body spun away.

Without missing a beat in his combo, he snatched the third Empusa and dragged it into the air, jumping off it and pulling it up again. With a quick revving of Red Queen, he slammed it into the floor with a fiery spinning downward slash, bisecting the insect-like demon.

The first one of the trio finally recovered and turned to face the teen. Nero simply loaded Blue Rose again, put it up to the odd, human face-like shape in the middle of the creature's skull, and blew its brains out.

"Guess these are those demons Dante mentioned," Nero said to himself, continuing with a cocky smirk, "They don't seem like all that much."

The teen holstered Blue Rose and continued his march down through the lab's halls.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

"And here we were having _such _a nice day," V commented. His leisurely stroll into a villainous base was rudely interrupted as he and Dante were ambushed by a small group of demons.

"Coming at ya, baby!" Griffon swooped down at an Empusa, knocking it into the air and leaving it open for Shadow to leap up and cut into it like a buzzsaw, bringing it to the brink of death and allowing V to blink in and finish off the demon.

"Where did all these things come from?" V shouted to Dante who was having an absolute blast tearing into the beasts with Rebellion.

"Probably somewhere further into this place. Whoever's in charge here is probably controlling them. We find them—"

"We can stop this insanity," V finished as he stabbed another weakened Empusa in its disjointed jaw, making it explode into blood and its remains disintegrated.

"Yeah. And hey! Maybe we'll pick up Deadweight along the way!" Dante joked as he finished one off with a point-blank shot from Coyote-A.

"That's a pretty shitty joke," Griffon mocked as he fried a group of Empusa with a Blockade, followed by his master defeating them with a quick stab to each.

Dante and V now stood over a bloodied floor with no more demons in sight. V leaned a little heavier on his cane while Dante took a few deep breaths.

"Well, that was a fun warmup!" Dante quipped, "Hopefully they got something more challenging further inside!"

As Dante set off again, V shook his head as he and his familiars followed the man in red. Once he caught up, Dante realized something.

"Hey, you're Will's kid, right?" Dante pointed at him. V seemed to tense up a bit.

"Which Will are you talking about? There's quite a few," V strained out.

"Ozpin said your name when he briefed me before the mission and I was like, 'Victor Blake? I know another guy with that last name!' He's actually my roommate. I don't care much for his writing, but he keeps the bills paid when I can't, so that's nice."

"Look, I'd appreciate it if you just called me V, okay?"

"Why? Did you not people to call you Vic?"

"No," V sighed, "Look, my father is famous for his career as a Huntsman before his...accident...and afterwards as a poet. When he raised me, it wasn't in the public spotlight because we lived a ways outside Argus. I moved out two years ago because of the fact that I wanted to experience the world, but I didn't want some random people on the street to know me as the son of some legendary hunter and eventual famous author. I want then to know me as..." V paused for a moment before finally finishing with, "Me."

Dante nodded, "I guess I can relate to that a bit. My old man was pretty famous too. But he...left when I was younger so I never really had to worry about it too much."

V didn't know what to say about Dante's lack of a father figure in his life, so he settled for patting him on the back and saying, "Thats rough buddy."

"Thanks," Dante laughed and grinned at the teen's lame attempt at being sympathetic, "But do me a favor? Give your old man a call when this is all over. I mean, he's been getting back into his business for a bit and I'm sure he hasn't had much time to talk to you for the last two years and I'm also sure you haven't been able to talk to him much since getting into combat school and all, but just talk with him for a bit," Dante advised, "Trust me, you don't always get much time to talk to your family when you become a Huntsman."

V smirked, "You know, I never thought that some pizza-obsessed, crazy Huntsman like yourself would be capable of heartfelt moments."

Dante laughed again and gave V a light smack to the back of the head, "Shut up, Bookworm. I can be serious sometimes!"

Dante and V's talking was interrupted as more Empusa ambushed them from around another turn.

"Hey, that's rude! Didn't your Queen ever teach you interrupt people when they're having a conversation?" Dante quipped at the demons as he drew Ebony and Ivory.

V looked at him as he got into a combat stance, "They have Queens?"

"Oh yeah," Dante nodded, "Bigger meaner, and they have some seriously sharp stabby things for arms. I should know: I've been impaled by them a few times."

"What?!" V's jaw dropped in shock before shaking his head. Why was he even surprised? This _is _Dante after all.

V summoned Shadow and Griffon, and as Dante fired his pistols, V's familiars dove in to assisted in the coming battle.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

"Have the specimens been moved?" Angus asked one few remaining lab worker.

"Yes sir. We've managed to get all subjects to a safe location," he reported, "However, because of the Yamato's delicate situation, it's taken longer than expected to remove it."

Agnus let out a frustrated sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"No matter," Agnus said, waving off the subordinate as he began to exit the control room about the testing chamber, "It seems only the lone student will arrive there. He wont prove to be much of a challenge, provided the Angelos remained for security as ordered. However, if you could capture him, I'd certainly like to study that arm of his," his voice then took on a more threatening tone as he finished, "I will have to deal with the Devil Hunter myself."

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

_I probably shouldn't have jinxed myself earlier._

Nero was backpedaling a bit. Soon after his earlier assumption about the demons he was fighting being too easy, he was swiftly ambushed by another one. This time, it had two cleavers in its hands that it certainly knew how to use.

Nero dodged another two swipes by the berserker and responded by slashing upwards with Red Queen and causing it to crash into the ceiling before grabbing it and slamming it back down. Nero ran up to attack again, but he was met with the demon getting up quickly and performing a charge with a slash. The teen tried to interrupt the charge with a simple swing of his sword, but to his surprise the demon simply shrugged off the attack and continued its swing. Thankfully, the young Huntsman in training avoided getting an extreme haircut by ducking under the attack, once again grabbing the fouls beast and slamming it into the ground.

This time, rather than let it get up, he repeatedly slammed Red Queen into it while it lay on the ground, powering up the attacks with flames courtesy of some revs of Red Queen. Eventually, he ended his assault by stabbing the sword into the demon and cleaving upwards, finally putting an end to the abomination's life.

_Damn, these things are crazy. Hope I don't find any more bullshit, _Nero stowed his weapon again and knocked twice on a random piece of wood sticking out of the ceiling from the earlier impact. _Still no Dante or V. They're pretty slow._

Nero smirked, determined to get to the end of this crazy place and beat the shit out of whoever was in charge by himself and prove he wasn't some sort of fucking "Deadweight."

****VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV****

V and Dante got to the end of the corridor they followed, finding themselves at a large set of double doors. Upon trying to open it, they found it to be locked. Dante huffed in frustration and brought up his foot, Spartan kicking the doors open and allowing them access to the room.

They stood in what appeared to be an empty testing chamber. Above them was a viewing box, and in the middle was a slightly raised platform. Beyond that, the room was fairly sparse, likely due to the moving of materials while Dante and V were busy shredding demons.

In the middle of the room, a man with brown hair, dark skin, glasses, and a long white coat scanned some notes he had on a clipboard in his left hand. He set it down, having seemingly noticed the two new arrivals, and stood up.

"It was my...assumption...that those demons would prove _far _inferior in the face of your tactics," Agnus began, acting in a very theatrical matter. V looked to his right to ask Dante what they should do only to find that the demon hunter had vanished. Suddenly, a random spotlight illuminated a new spot on this makeshift stage where Dante stood with one foot on a chair he had somehow obtained. He then kicked it away as he responded.

"You summon and kill, summon and kill. I fail to see the logic here," Dante spoke in a similarly over-the-top manner, "Is sanity...the price to pay...FOR POWER?!"

V closed his eyes and shook his head in disappointment, _This is an abomination against the art of theater._

"Humans," Agnus continued, oblivious to V's thoughts. The scientist now held a skull in his hand, looking down upon it, "They are but stubborn and foolish. It takes a journey to Hell for them to accept and praise their gods. A fact," he turned back to the two intruders and punctuated the statement by crushing the skull in his hand, "That tickles irony's judgement."

Agnus brought his hand to his face, blowing the dust of the skull as the spotlight once more transitioned back to Dante who now lay on his side, with his hand in the air.

"And your judgments interest me not!" the man in red pushed up onto his feet, "For I am here! To reclaim! What is rightfully mine!"

What V witnessed next was quiet bizarre, as Agnus's form shifted into an insect-like appearance, with wings, oddly jointed legs, thorax, and all. The only eye he had was his left one which glowed a menacing red color. In his hand, he held a sword aloft, shouting, "****Yamato! That, is what you seek,****" Agnus lowered his sword to be parallel to the ground, slowly turning as he continued,****"And that, is why I wait, in your, path!****" Agnus finished, punctuating each segment with a swing of his sword, ending by pointing it upwards once more.

Suddenly, a bench slid in out of nowhere with Dante standing atop it, arms outstretched, confetti spraying out of nonexistent launchers (making V question his sanity even more) as Dante laughed, "You will fumble in opposition of my quest!" He ended the boast by pointing towards Agnus's transformed form before turning back to the audience of V, outstretching his arms and saying, "Though I encourage! For the opportunity to fight a being of such grand delusion as you...is a true fortune," Dante smirked to V and asked, "How's that for Shakespeare?"

V just rolled his eyes and groaned, summoning Shadow and Griffon as Dante drew Rebellion. The familiars charged forward with Dante, meeting the demon head on.

****VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV****

Nero tore open the heavy metal doors at the end of his hallway with the Devil Bringer, finding a small room with a containment unit on the far side that a scientist was attempting to open. Within were the pieces of a katana. Why anyone would have some broken weapon on display, Nero had no idea.

"Yo! Egghead!" Nero shouted and drew Blue Rose, startling the man at the other end of the room. The man raised his hands as Nero approached.

"You in charge of this place?" Nero asked as he got up in the scientist's face.

"No sir, that would be Agnus," the man fearfully said. The white-haired teen let out a huff. He'd really hoped to kick someone's ass, but his clearly wasn't the right guy.

"Okay then Evil Mc-Asshole, whats the deal with this place anyway? Those weird monsters? This sword?" Nero interrogated him a little.

"We were summoning demons using this sword, the Yamato," he answered, pointing to the sword. Nero glanced at it before turning back to the scientist.

"But why the fuck are you doing this whole thing anyway? Who do you and your boss work for?"

"I don't know!"

Nero was beginning to get a little frustrated. He pointed Blue Rose towards the man's foot and threatened, "Maybe a little bullet in your foot will jog your memory."

Rather than cower, the scientist smiled as he looked over Nero's shoulder, "If you wanted to shoot me, you should have done it a few moments before."

Nero's eyes widened as he whipped around, but he was too late as two lances impaled him against the wall, making him shout in pain.

The scientist cackled, "Aren't they beautiful? We've harnessed the power of so many demons; unfortunately, you'll be too dead to see them performing our divine work."

The demons revealed themselves to be multiple suits of flying armor, each holding a lance. The scientist grabbed a weapon from one of them and stabbed into Nero's abdomen, causing him to cough up blood.

"Agnus said to acquire you for testing, but I'm sure it would be easier if you were dead. Less struggling that way," the man said before walking back towards the Yamato, ordering the suits, "Finish him off, but be delicate with the arm."

As the demons swooped forward to finish him off, Nero closed his eyes.

For a moment he was sad. Sad that he'd failed. Upset that he was going to die.

Terrified he'd never see any of his friends again, especially Ruby.

These demons would hurt people.

They'd hurt his friends.

Ruby...

****VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV****

_He remembered Patch._

_"Catch me if you can!"_

_"No fair! you can run super fast! That's cheating!"_

_"No, you're just too slow!"_

_Before the accident..._

****VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV****

_That night changed him..._

_"Nero!"_

_Mom..._

_The house was burning..._

_"You need to hide honey. No matter what, you mustn't leave!"_

_Something roared in the distance. I never knew what it was._

_"Someone will come for you. You can trust him; he's and old friend. You need to be a big boy, okay? Mommy's going to have to go away for a while, but you'll be strong, right? I love you, sweetie..."_

****VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV****

_He was found, but not by the man, not at first. It was the demon. The one that got mom. The one that just cut him._

_The pain from the wound on his arm was unbearable._

_He was saved soon after. The last thing he saw before he passed out was a red jacket._

****VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV****

His sorrow soon morphed into something else.

Anger.

Anger like he'd never felt before.

How dare these...weak beings pin down something like him?

They insulted him.

They spat on his desire to protect those he cared about.

But he couldn't beat them like this.

He needed...

_Power..._

_Power..._

**_**GIVE ME MORE POWER!**_**

****VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV****

Nero opened his eyes and saw red. His arm flared up with a newfound strength as he reached out, feeling for something, a missing part of him, until he grabbed what he was looking for.

The hilt.

He swung forwards, cleaving the demons in half and breaking free of the lances that pinned him to the wall, the holes in hiss body healing rapidly. Nero now held the Yamato, reborn. Something about it just felt...right...

Across from him, he could see the scientist...no...the_ bug _who dared to try to kill him scooting away backwards. Terrified of him, of his power.

_Good._

More demons rushed towards him but he payed them no mind as he hacked and slashed through each and every one with his katana like they were butter.

"I-i-i-impossible! No one could ever remake that sword! Not after-"

The bumbling of his enemy was ended with a stab through the chest, pinning him against the wall. How appropriate.

As Nero withdrew the blade and wiped it off, he felt himself calm down. The aura surrounding him dissipated and his vision returned to normal. He now held Yamato in his hand, where he was cut as a child. His Devil Bringer. The sword dissipated, seemingly absorbed into the arm as it glowed blue.

Nero took in a deep breath. Despite the...thrill of the power that he used, part of it scared him. At the same time, this power reassured him, comforted him. He knew he could protect those closest to him with it.

He heard a crashing coming from above him. Whether it was that Angus guy the scientist was talking about or Dante and V or all of the above, he didn't know, but he certainly was going to find out.

****VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV****

V, despite most of his participation in this fight being avoiding lethal blows and the occasional attempt at a stab with his weapon, was winded. This was definitely the most he had to exert himself and control his familiars, yet his companion seemed to be having a blast.

Dante parried and dodged, slashed and taunted in an intricate and stylish dance that was quickly wearing down Agnus, even with his demonic power.

_Well, I hope this will make sure he doesn't start calling me Deadweight too, _V thought as he snapped his fingers, turning his hair white and giving Dante a bit of a shock.

"Don't tell me you're in the Dante wannabe fan club to?" he joked as he sidestepped a few summoned blades Agnus launches at him.

"And why the hell would I want to be some pizza obsessed nut job like you?" V cracked back as Nightmare rose up under him. As the cane-wielding team began to attack Agnus with V, Dante responded by dramatically putting his hands over his heart.

"Oh, V! You wound me so! And how many more buddies are you going to pull out of your ass?" Dante joked before pulling out Ebony and Ivory and rapidly fire them as they glowed red with demonic energy.

V ignored that comment as he used Nightmare to send Agnus flying with a heavy right hook. Dante grinned as he shouted "Trickster!" and teleported over, his Rebellion being replaced by a set of Gauntlets while he yelled, "Swordmaster!" Pulling his arm back, it seemed to light on fire as he performed a rising uppercut, sending Agnus back towards V, who commanded Nightmare to leap up and slam their enemy into the ground with a two handed over head swing.

V's families returned to being his tattoos as he and Dante now approached a human Agnus.

"I-i-impossible! How can there be such a difference...b-between us?" Agnus stuttered as he managed to slowly sit up.

"You surrendered your humanity. It's that simple," Dante answered.

"But you are not human! Even the boy used demonic familiars to fight me! So why am I inferior?!"

"You assume that humans are weak," Dante said, "Okay, yeah, their bodies lack the physical ability of a demon. But humans possess something that demons don't."

"What? What is it that demons l-l-lack?" Agnus frantically scrounged up his notes which were scattered from the fight, "Please! For the sake of my research! Please! Tell me!"

V shook his head while Dante simply shot a hole through the newly gathered notes, sending them flying again.

Agnus frantically attempted to grab the notes, shouting "No...no, no! No! No!"

"Two little tidbits from yours truly," Dante began, "One, you think I'm just going to give you that sort of answer when you're working for the bad guys? And two, if you're going to continue your research in the next world..."

Agnus grabbed a couple notes and peered through the hole to find Dante once again raising his pistol.

"Do your homework first."

With that, the demon hunter shot Agnus, sending him sprawling out onto the floor.

"Well, now that's done," Dante said, "Gather up the papers and see if there's anything else important going on in this place.

"So, is this just your average workday?" V asked Dante as he picked up some of the papers.

"Well, demon hunting? Yes. But evil villain lairs tend to be a bit less clean," Dante answered, getting a small chuckle out of V as he thumbed through some of the papers.

"All this is is research on a whole bunch of different demons," V said, seeing titles to pages with detailed anatomical drawings and notes titled things like "Faust," "Fury," and "Riot" to name a few.

"So this place was researching those things," Dante thought aloud, "But if those other demons were studied here, why didn't we find any—"

Dante's musings were cut off as a hole was busted open through the floor. The Huntsman and trainee pointed their melee weapons at it as a figure surrounded by a blue specter climbed up. However, as they got over their shook, they recognized the katana holding figure as the ghost like thing behind him vanished.

As Nero got close and V looked at the blade, he began to feel ill. A headache began pounding at the back of his skull. All other sounds were drowned out as he felt himself freeze up. He couldn't move. Suddenly, he felt like he was flipping backward through the air into an endless abyss.

****VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV****

_V found himself standing in a place he didn't know. Was this a vision? Whoever it was about, he seemed to be seeing through their eyes._

_He was in the middle of a storm. He felt...in pain, like he was slowly falling a part. He approached a dilapidated house, a katana clutched in his hand like a lifeline. He stumbled into the main foyer, where a picture of a family hung above him. He glanced over the mother and two brothers, eyes finally settling on the one appearing to be the patriarch. With a grimace, he turned away from the painting. He unsheathed his sword, revealing it to be nearly falling apart, still slightly coated in a black liquid he didn't recognize. Once he wiped it off with a cloth in his hand, he slowly turned it to point towards the ground._

_After a moment's hesitation, he thrust it into his abdomen._

_As pain flared up, he struggled out some raspy speech._

_"Break this heavy chain...that does freeze my bones around!"_

_The man split in two parts as the blade shattered, but something was wrong. The weapon shattered from its damage, causing the spell to go slightly wrong. Rather than being two distinct forms, the halves were like spirits, floating above the ground, one light and one dark._

_They wouldn't last long like this, not without a host, a corporeal form to latch on to._

_V felt himself take off with the light spirit as the dark one shot off in another unknown direction. The light spirit traveled for what seemed to be hours on end found a small house in the middle of the woods, mostly isolated, though one could see the walls of a city in the distance._

_He entered through a window into a room. There, a familiar young boy lay sound asleep, white hair laying on his pillow. While not the spirit's first choice, it would have to do. It shot forward and was absorbed into the boy's Aura. He writhed around for a moment as tattoos formed on his skin and his hair turned black before finally coming to stillness._

_And V finally realized why he recognized that child._

****VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV****

"V? You alive man?"

V snapped out of his trance as Nero slapped him across the face.

"Ow!"

"It's alive!" Dante shouted like a melodramatic mad scientist as some random thunder crashed in the background.

"Shut up!" Nero barked, turning back to V with a look of concern, "You good man? You looked a little pale there and you didn't respond to us."

V shook his head, "Yeah, I'm fine. I just...spaced out there for a minute."

Nero and Dante glanced at each other in disbelief, but dropped the subject.

"Anyway, I'll let you hold onto that until the end of the mission since I got my hands full, but I'm going to need to take it back once we get back to Beacon," Dante ordered Nero.

"What? Why?"

"Well, it's pretty dangerous, given that it can open portals between two points in our world or the Underworld," Dante explained.

"Pizza box theory," V recalled their earlier conversation. Nero looked at him like he was insane.

"Don't tell me Dante made you join in his pizza addiction."

"No, I'll just explain it later," V waved him off.

Nero just sighed and looked toward Dante, "Alright, I'll give you this thing back to you later, but until then, I get to play with it."

"Sounds reasonable. Okay then!" Dante clapped his hands together and turned to the exit, "If we're done here, then let's haul ass outta here. I could kill for a pizza and a strawberry sundae right now."

****VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV****

"I mean, it makes sense, but why use a pizza box? Why not a shoe box or an ammo box or some other box, or even another analogy entirely?" Nero asked as he conversed with V. Dante was ahead of the two, leading them back through the winding stairs and hallways towards the entrance.

"Because he's infatuated with pizza?" V shrugged.

"Fair enough," Nero sighed, "Anyway, could I ask you some advice? I don't think Dante would have much experience with this since he's probably going to be a bachelor for life."

"I'm listening," V said.

Nero began, "You've had some time together with Blake and even though you haven't really been on an official date, you two seem pretty close."

"Yeah, living together and suffering the pain of Yang's puns and beating up criminals can do that," V joked.

"Well, yeah, but I bring that up because..." Nero thought for a few moments on how to put his next statement, "Look, I really like Ruby and I haven't had much time to be with her since I left Patch. Do you have any advice at all to navigate this relationship stuff?"

V laughed, "I've got no advice at all. I'd be lying if I said I knew exactly what I'm doing all the time. Really, all I can tell you is go with your gut."

Nero looked down and thought about V's words for a few minutes before nodding. As Dante, V, and Nero finally exited back into the tunnel they fell into at the beginning, V turned back to Nero.

"Also, if you can convince Dante to let you keep Yamato, try to get that portal thing to work with the sword," V chuckled, "I'd love to be able to not walk to classes."

Nero laughed as well, "I'll see what I can do."

"Shush!" Dante suddenly hushed them.

Nero raised his voice, "Did you just shush me?"

"I said shut up, Deadweight!" Dante pointed at him, "Listen..."

A loud noise sounded off in the distance.

"Maybe that's just the airship Lansing bear the hole," Nero reasoned. Dante shook his head

"I don't think so. I never called it since we don't have service down here."

Suddenly, the rails and the ground began shaking.

"Okay, that's not good," Nero commented.

A loud honking and bright lights made them turn to look down the tunnel.

"Well," Dante dryly remarked, "This is certainly not what I thought would happen today."

The sight they were greeted with was a large train barreling down the tracks towards them.


	12. Chapter 11: Crazy Train

"FUCK!" Nero shouted as the train barreled towards them. Dante turned into his Devil form and flew upwards while V hitched a ride on Griffon. Nero used his Devil Bringer to grab onto Dante and hitch a ride.

"Y'know, for all your claiming to not be deadweight, you sure are acting like it right now!" Dante yelled back to him as he barely missed being run over. Nero simply responded by flipping him off.

"Guys, I think I see some people further down!" V called out to his companions, "I think it's Ruby and Doctor Oobleck! And...they have a dog?"

"Why is Zwei here?" Nero asked.

"Who?"

"Never mind, lets just get over there!"

As soon as Nero made the suggestion, a couple of hijacked Atlesian Paladins climbed atop the train. V dropped on top of the train, having Griffon and Shadow dart forward. While the former drew the mech's fire and dodged each of its attempts to shoot him down, Shadow ripped into its back with its spikes and blades, destroying the circuitry and crippling it. Nero took the chance to let go of Dante and fall towards the suit, revving up Red Queen for a burning downward slash that caused the inoperable mech to explode.

"Nero!" Ruby shouted in excitement as she ran up and gave him a hug, "Were'd you guys come from?"

"Uh...long story short," Nero explained, "We found an underground villain lair after I fell through the street into a subway tunnel and when we came back out after kicking butt, we nearby got hit by this thing."

"As glad as I am that we have reunited, we should explain our perilous situation, Ms. Rose," Doctor Oobleck adjusted his glasses.

"Right, right," Ruby let go of Nero as Dante and V walked up, "So basically, we found the Torchwick and the White Fang's Base under Mountain Glenn and they're driving this train to Vale while using bombs in train cars to blow holes in the tunnel and lead Grimm back to the city!"

"Well that sounds pretty terrible. Where's the rest of your little chick squad?" Dante asked.

"Yang, Blake, and Weiss are heading toward the front of the train through the cars while we go above," Ruby answered with a thumbs up, "Y'know, divide and beat up the bad guys and all that."

Dante nodded and turned around to see more White Fang members and Paladins down the train smiling, "In that case, why don't we give our friends a little greeting?" he turned back to the group, "I'll head down into the train cars and help out the other kids. You guys keep going topside."

"But what if we need you?" V asked.

"You should be fine with Deadweight now. He's like a less powerful, less stylish version of me," Dante roasted Nero before her dropped down between the cars.

"Hey! Take that back!" Nero shouted down to him, but Dante was already gone.

"No time to bemoan over insults. Our enemy approaches," V said as Griffon and Shadow appeared at his side.

"Yeah, c'mon Deadweight! Let's kick some ass!" Griffon whooped and swooped at the incoming White Fang contingent with Shadow.

Nero sighed before turning back to Ruby and offering, "Shall we?"

Ruby smiled, "Let's go!"

The two charged into the fray, Ruby slashing at anyone that came within range of her scythe while Nero alternated between attacking with Red Queen, Blue Rose, and grabbing enemies to toss them off the train or into range of Ruby for her to take care of them. Griffon zapped the mechs with powerful lightning blasts and peppered some of the grunts, giving Shadow an opening to rip through their lines. V simply stood back, leaning on his cane and reading poetry.

"To see the world in a grain of sand and to see heaven in a wildflower, hold infinity in the palm of your hands and eternity in an hour," V read aloud. Nero looked at him incredulously as he backhanded a White Fang member.

"You gonna fight or read poetry all day?" he shouted.

"I'm not suited to do the grunt work," V simply responded as he continued to read, "And I'm not sure this," he indicated to his cane, "Would be useful against the hunks of metal."

Nero groaned, "Why do you have to be so useless?"

The white haired teen then summoned Yamato, in his right hand, causing the blue specter to reappear as he charged forward with a sword in each hand.

With a yell, he tore through the mechs, his flaming Red Queen and Yamato slicing up the metal as though it were butter. He stowed Red Queen on his back as he approached the final mech, leaping above it to get to its back. With the enhanced strength of his semi-Devil Trigger, he grabbed the legs of the leg with assistance from his Stand—I mean the spirit behind him, and swung it around repeatedly before throwing it off the edge of the train.

"That was totally awesome!" Ruby exclaimed as Nero powered down, "You were all like 'HYAAAAAAAA' and then whoosh whoosh and you picked up the one guy and BANG!"

Nero laughed at her enthusiastic portrayal of his display as she came up and gave him a hi-five.

"Alright, kiddos," Griffon interrupted them, "Let's haul ass to the front. We've only got so much track left!"

"I concur with the foul mouthed bird!" Doctor Oobleck said as he caught up, "Onward!"

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

The door in front of Dante slid open automatically. Thankfully, he wasn't immediately greeted by someone leaping out of the shadows to impale him or something.

Not so thankfully, Yang was knocked out on the floor and some tri-color little girl was raising a blade up to stab her instead.

Somehow Dante thought that was familiar, but he shook it off.

He immediately whipped out Ebony and Ivory, firing off two shots. The girl barely deflected them as she stepped back in surprise.

"Hey pint size!" Dante quipped, "It's not sportsmanlike to stab someone while they're down."

The strange girl narrowed her eyes as she watched the new arrival, unsure of what to do in this situation. After all, this _is _Dante Redgrave she was dealing with.

However, their stare down was cut short as a red portal opened behind the girl and a woman with a mask resembling a Grimm and a red katana slashed at the petite girl, making her dodge away. The woman sheathed her katana and stood up straight from her lowered position, turning her head to fully face her target, redrawing her sword slowly. The umbrella girl's features morphed to one of worry as she looked between Dante and the newcomer, finally twirling her umbrella, opening it, and vanishing in a flash.

Dante wasn't concerned with the disappearance of Shortstack; his current problem was the woman coldly staring at him through her Grimm mask.

"Raven..." he said, "Fancy meeting you here. What made you suddenly come back?"

He was sure she scowled behind that mask, like always, "Dante Sparda."

Dante frowned at her address of him, and after a few moments of silence, responded, "What's the matter? Not feeling so talkative after suddenly appear out of the blue and rescue your daughter?"

"I have no obligation to say anything to you," Raven coldly answered as she made a single vertical slash with her sword, creating a red portal.

"Well, maybe you should give your old 'friends' you left behind a call sometime!" Dante called to her as she stepped through the portal, completely ignoring him. He shook his head, muttering, "Still have that ice cold charm after all these years..."

"Who was that?" Dante's eyebrows shot up as he whipped around to find a recovering Yang, who probably just unknowingly watched her mother walk away after reappearing in her life for the first time in years. Dante slightly cringed as he began walking past her.

"Tell you when you're older kiddo. Right now we gotta stop this train."

Yang looked back to where the woman disappeared moments earlier before shaking her head and following the Huntsman out of the car.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

Meanwhile, atop the train, Ruby, Nero, V, Doctor Oobleck, and Zwei continued towards the front as another Paladin appeared ahead of them. Nero growled as he revved Red Queen while V sent Griffon forward.

"Over here, dumbass!" the foul-mouthed bird shouted as he peppered the mech with a few small blasts, drawing it's attention away from the white haired teen charging it. With a yell, Nero jumped off the roof of the train, landing on and immediately pushing off of one of the Paladin's arms to land on its head. He quickly finished off the hunk of metal by stabbing into the engine on its back and repeatedly revving Red Queen, setting it ablaze before grabbing its "head" with his Devil Bringer, swinging it around twice, and launching it into the side of the tunnel to explode behind them as they sped along.

"No ticket, no ride!" Nero joked as he landed. Panting a bit, he looked down to the rear of the train cars, finding a Paladin duo approaching. A wicked grin appeared on his face as he taunted, "This all you got? How about an actual challenge? I'm getting a little sleepy over here!"

"Great, now you've jinxed us," Ruby smiled at him.

"Maybe," he said, turning to her, "You two should go on ahead," Nero indicated to V and Ruby, "We'll keep these buckets-of-bolts out of your hair."

Ruby's expression shifted to one of worry, "But-"

"Don't worry, Little Rose," Nero booped her on the nose with the index finger of his Devil Bringer, "I got a Demon Katana and Professor Flaming Thermos over here. I'll be fine."

Ruby looked down, then back at him, "Well okay then you big dumby," she playfully punched him in the shoulder, "But don't get to banged up. You said you'd take me to get cookies after this!"

Nero laughed a little and smiled back. The two teens stared into each others eyes, silver orbs meeting blue. Everything else seemed to fade away for a few precious moments.

"EXCUSE ME LOVEBIRDS!" Griffon flew between them, startling the two out of their trace, "Don't we have things we need to do, so everyone better start haulin' ass soon before I need to start givin' you motivational shocks!"

V sighed at his familiar's behavior. Oobleck nodded in agreement, "Despite he coarseness, the bird is right. You best get going. There's only so much track left," he turned to the white haired student, "Come now, Nero! I think it's time we teach these miscreants a lesson."

As Nero and the Doctor ran off, Zwei looked up at Ruby expectantly. She chuckled at the corgi and waved him off, "Go."

With a yip of excitement, Zwei pattered off to join his new best thermos-wielding friend and Nero while Ruby and V headed to the front of the train

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

Dante backhanded the White Fang Lieutenant he and Yang found two cars down, sending him crashing into the wall. Yang was a bit shocked by the display of power, but continued forward. Dante looked to see Blake and Weiss climbing out of a hatch in the roof, likely to escape the now unconscious Lieutenant.

Dante looked to Yang, "Go up with your friends, Blondie. I got this."

Yang nodded and headed over to the ladder as Dante continued to the next car. He didn't wait for the sliding door to open automatically and instead opted to slash it in half with Rebellion, allowing him quick access, repeating the process with the final door as he reached the front car.

Dante reached the control panel in a split second, found the brake, and attempted to activated it. However, no squealing of stopping wheels or lurching of a sudden stop occurred. He tried again. And again. And again.

"Damn it! Why isn't this working?" Dante shouted as he slammed his fist on the controls. Finally, two red, flashing signs on the digital display next to it drew his attention. The words shot out at him and confirmed his fears. They simply read:

Breaks inoperable.

Approaching end of track

"Son of a-"

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

Ruby and V were surprised to find Weiss, Blake, and Yang climbing out of the train one car from the front as they stopped two cars from the front.

"Did you get to the controls?" Ruby asked as the three caught up to them.

Blake and Weiss shook their heads, but Yang responded, "Dante went ahead to themand sent us up."

"That doesn't appear to be a favorable end," V said, gaining initial looks of confusion from the girls, then worry, as they saw what he was referring to.

The train was rapidly approaching the end of the tunnel, a concrete wall, and it was not slowing down.

"What do we do?" Blake asked. Weiss smiled as she readied her rapier. V shouted down the train to Nero and Oobleck, still fighting off Paladins and unaware of the impending peril.

"Nero! Doctor! Brace yourselves"

The two looked to the front to see what he was talking about. Nero's eyes widened as he yelled, "Shit!" and stabbed his sword into the train and punched through the roof with his Devil Bringer, hanging on tight. At the same time, Weiss thrust her rapier down a the others crouched, shielding them in ice just in time as the train reached the end of the tracks, crashed, and exploded.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

Ruby's eyes slowly opened as she sat up and recovered from the explosion. Her teammates and V did the same.

They found themselves surrounded by the wrecked train with the broken wall behind them. Ruby looked back to her friends and gave a thumbs up that each returned, signaling they were fine. She them finally looked away from their little pile of rubble to find themselves in the center of Vale with civilians looking on in shock and confusion at the destruction before them. Before she could say or do anything, the ground began to rumble.

Suddenly, a King Taijitu burst forth from the ground behind them as the Grimm that had followed the train charged into the city, making the civilians flee in terror as they began their rampage.

The five teens stood up, each of them in various states of shock until Ruby's features shifted to a determined expression, clenching her fists and turning back to the rest of her team, plus V.

"What are we doing just standing around like this?" she asked with a small smirk, "Let's go do our jobs!"

The others returned her confidence as Yang reloaded Ember Celica, Weiss spun Myrtenaster's Dust chamber, Blake unsheathed Gambol Shroud, and V changed his grip on his cane, holding it like a sword as Griffon and Shadow appeared next to him. Ruby followed suit, taking Crescent Rose out of its folded up state, twirling it around, and slamming the tip into the ground. Some of the Grimm turned to the group and began roaring.

As the others prepared themselves for battle, Griffon swooped around and shouted at the top of his lungs, "YEAH-HA! LET'S FUCK SHIT UP!"

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

**And there we go! A bit shorter than normal, but next chapter is the end of Volume 2. Excitement!**

**Also, while working on this chapter, I discovered the new character models for the next season of RWBY**

****Honestly, I don't really mind them that much, but my God, Jaune's new hair is really throwing me off. I'll probably get used to it eventually.****

****Anyway, college is a bit of a bitch, but I think I'm somehow more productive both in terms of regular school work and writing this, so hopefully the next chapter will be fairly long with lots of action-y goodness and hopefully it's out relatively soon. Don't take my word for it, but it should hopefully be here before Halloween!****

****Happy Spook Month!****


	13. Chapter 12: Breach

"I'm sure they're fine."

Team JNPR had just woken up at sunrise and were headed out for the airships for their mission. Pyrrha was reassuring their leader while Nora skipped along happily behind them and Ren kept to a simple walk.

"You think so?"

"Yeah, probably just a butt dial or something," Nora continued to remain jovial.

"Team RWBY has always performed exceptionally in the field," Ren pointed out, "We should be focusing on our own mission."

Nora suddenly whipped around to look at him with an excited expression and her hands in the air, stopping him in his tracks as she shouted, "We're gonna be deputies!"

Nevertheless, Jaune still remained apprehensive as he stopped walking, "I just got this feeling...I don't know."

"Jaune..." Pyrrha came to a halt next to him and laid a hand on his shoulder. However, whatever advice she was about to give was cut off as a siren pierced the early morning quiet, drawing JNPR's attention. On the horizon was the city of Vale with smoke rising from numerous areas as the alarms continued. Despite the apparent danger, Jaune's face now held a look of resolve as he ordered to his team, "We're changing our mission. Everyone on board!"

As they headed to the Bullhead, Jaune did a quick headcount before hopping in and saying to the pilot, "We'll be heading to that village another time. Take us into the city!

The Bullhead departed, leaving behind three "students" whose prescience remained unknown to the team. Emerald, Mercury, and Cinder looked off at Vale. The green-haired girl's eyes widened, "You don't think..."

"Sure looks like it," Mercury crossed his arms and shook his head.

"That's still days away!"

Mercury remained calm as he turned to their leader, "So? What do we do?"

Cinder looked to the ground, mulling over the newly developed problem. Roman had, without warning, started his part of the mission, throwing things into disarray. _But perhaps this can be salvaged_, Cinder smiled as she nodded, making her decision.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

"Well. This doesn't look too good," Yang commented.

There wasn't a better way to describe the situation. After the team left the entrance of the tunnel and made it to the center of the plaza, the Grimm in the area decided that was the time to focus all of their attention onto the group. Needless to say, team RWBY(V) were now surrounded by Beowulves, Ursai, and a King Taijitu. Ruby and Weiss exchanged nervous glaces while Yang was giving a...Yangry glare at the Grimm. Blake looked over to V to find him withdrawing his book of poetry.

"'Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul,/And sings the tune without the words,/And never stops at all,'" V quoted, as Griffon flapped his wings and hovered next to him, crackling with electricity while Shadow growled at their opposition.

"Quoting poetry at a time like this," Blake gave a playful grin despite the situation which V returned.

"It's always a good time to quote poetry," V replied before adding, "And I'm not particularly good at making motivational speeches by myself."

As the two refocused on the horde, the large snake Grimm unleashed a mighty roar, prompting the assembled Grimm to charge.

Ruby was the first to charge, hopping into the middle of a group of Beowulves and slamming the tip of her scythe into the ground before pulling a Neo v. Agent Smith and swinging herself around in a circle, kicking each Grimm that approached away. Yang leapt down and spring boarded off the skull of a Beowulf, launching herself backwards into the air. She proceeded to rain fire with Ember Celica, taking out quite a few Grimm with the blasts. However, her flight was cut short as a trio of Nevermores sent her crashing back down to the earth, making a crater from her landing.

Blake had remained on the central platform, slashing multiple times at an Ursai that attempted to charge her and sending it to the ground dead. She immediately spun in a circle with Gambol Shroud shifted into its pistol mode, shooting down multiple Grimm that were attempting to approach her.

Weiss was also still in the center of the park, slicing and stabbing three Beowulves that tried to take her down. With a Glyph and a swing of her weapon, a large ice sword was created that cleaved a group of Grimm in half.

V weaved around any Grimm that came his way, not allowing them to get a hit in as he had Griffon and Shadow do their thing. The former was launching Blockades and Round Robins left and right as Shadow slashed through a few Grimm before transforming into a shape resembling a Venus Flytrap and lunging forward, hitting any creatures in front of it and crushing them to a pulp.

As they fought, an image flashed through V's eyes. It felt similar to the vision he received upon beholding the Yamato, but this one was short, brief, and seemingly uninformative; it was an odd sight, one of blue, crystal-like energy swords, summoned by a mysterious individual and launched towards an unknown target.

"V!" Blake shouted, breaking him out of his vision just in time to see an Ursa about to swipe at him. He dodged backwards, using Griffon to ferry him to a safer position. He was immediately surrounded by a small pack of Beowulves. For some reason, an odd feeling flared up in him again. Deciding to go with it, V jumped upwards, bringing his hands together and sweeping them away from each other. Somehow, this action resulted in an occurrence similar to the one in the vision, though in this case it created a cluster of summoned canes that shot out and impaled the nearby enemies.

As he landed in the group of now dead Grimm, Blake made her way over to V.

"Are you okay?" she asked, stabbing an attacking Beowulf that Shadow then grabbed off her blade with a few tendrils to swing around and knock over a few enemies.

"Been better," V responded as he looked up to see the King Taijitu, passive until now, focus its attention on him and Blake, "I'll tell you some other time. Right now we have more-"

Before he could finish, the rubble next to it shifted, gaining its attention. The snake leaned closer to investigate, and soon after it was greeted by a nasty surprise a a red blur burst forth from the scrapped train and slashed its head clean off with a single slash. The now headless body crashed to the ground as the blur landed next to the teens, revealing a Devil Triggered Dante with Rebellion resting on his shoulder. V let out a breath and smiled in relief at the back up.

"Looks like I'm a little late to the party," he grinned with a mouth full of sharp teeth.

"No, you're just in time."

"DANG IT! I wanted the big one..." a dejected voice shouted across the battlefield as Dante returned to his normal state. The three of them turned to find team JNPR having just dropped from their Bullhead with a pouty Nora, apparently upset at not being able to get the Taijitu.

"Eh, don't worry too much," Dante grinned as he gestured to the area surrounding them, "There's plenty of ass to kick all around."

Nora grinned wickedly and jumped high into the air onto an unsuspecting Ursa, shouting, "NORA SMASH!"

"Let's go!" Pyrrha said as she, Ren, and Jaune also split up to assist in fighting the Grimm.

Dante whooped a bit as he found an advancing pack of Beowulves, Trickster-ing above them and Rainstorming before summoning a pair of gauntlets and greaves, slamming down into the ground and sending the Grimm flying into the air and allowing him to blow them all out of the air with a few blasts from Coyote-A. After finishing them, he made a charging thrust towards the next target and stabbed at it rapidly, continuing the carnage.

"Nobody move! Junior detectives!" another familiar voice called out.

"We have badges, so you know it's official!" a second followed soon after.

V and Blake turned to see Sun and Neptune had arrived on the scene, although rather than contributing, they were currently standing in the road and posing with their little badges like dorks.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure that'll do a great fuckin job stopping the Grimm, twats!" Griffon mocked them, causing their confidence to immediately deflate as he Flank Attacked an Ursa to set it up for Yang to pummel into the ground.

Blake frowned at V, "You need to discipline that bird someday."

V shrugged, "I dislike it as much as you do, but he'd never listen."

Their conversing was once again interrupted as the roar of engines sounded overhead. Multiple dropships were flying around, dropping off Atlesian robots to assist in the fighting as a ginormous flagship came into view above the block. Despite their robotic nature, they proved effective in helping to thin the tide of Grimm, though a few were accidentally destroyed as Dante practically danced around and sliced anything that came within a few feet of him into a million pieces.

Soon after, Cinder, Mercury, and Emerald walked up to the fight. Cinder simple stood back and instead let her two subordinates go to help repel the Grimm.

_Strange_, V thought to himself.

A new Bullhead landed in the middle of the plaza carrying Team CFVY and Professor Port. Yatsuhashi was the first to see combat as he was quickly surrounded by Beowulves. The large teen was unpreterbed, and after a mighty swing of his greatsword, brought it to the ground and blew away the creatures with a massive shockwave.

Fox and Velvet were fighting off more Beowulves as they attacked one at a time, quickly making their way forward. However, they stopped their advance as an Ursa Major, flanked by other Grimm. Fox rushed ahead towards the large bear-like Grimm, performing a flip kick that made it stumble and attacking it multiple times with his elbow blades. With a brutal uppercut, he sent it into the air, and as soon as it came back down, he struck it on its boneplated head with both fists. As the Ursa crashed back into the remaining foes, it swelled up and exploded, sending its bone spines that covered its back flying out and impaling any Grimm caught in the blast.

A few flew toward the now-approaching Coco, but she simply deflected it with her briefcase. As she walked by Fox, she slapped his ass, complimenting, "Nice work, honey."

One beowulf stood in front of the fashionista, roaring in her face. Coco remained stoic, simply lowering her sunglasses with an annoyed look.

"You just destroyed my favorite clothing store," she said, pushing her glasses back up on her face and spiting off to the side, "Prepare to die."

With an angry howl, the creature reared back a paw and slashed downward, only to be deflected by Coco's briefcase. It was soon rewarded a swift kick to its nether regions, making it fall over in pain. Coco bent forward and stared down the injured beast before rearing her hand back and bringing her weapon down on top of the Grimm's head like a hammer on a nail. The blow killed it instantly as it smashed into the ground and shattered the pavement.

More Grimm started to swarm toward the new threat. Coco strutted forward with a smirk as her case opened to reveal its second form: a gigantic chain gun. All of the creatures around her were obliterated in seconds as the deadly weapon opened fire. Coco turned her BFG skyward, tearing Nevermores that flew overhead into shreds.

Dante looked on from the sidelines, stabbing a Boarbatusk right through the head, cursing, "Damn! I knew I should have brought Pandora!"

Meanwhile, Ruby and Yang were starting to get a bit worn out from the length they had been fighting, but they pushed onward. However, rounding the corner, a trio of Deathstalkers came out and bore down on their position. Unexpectedly, a teen shot out from the tunnel with a blue ghost behind him, grabbing the tail of one of the Grimm and flinging it into the bakery on the corner of the street.

"Nero!" Ruby called out as the object of her not-so-hidden affections landed on the street in front of them, Yamato in his Devil Bringer hand and Red Queen in his human one. He looked a little ragged from the collision, but was otherwise okay.

"Good to see you're still kicking Grimm butt, Rubes," Nero grinned, using the spectral demon figure created by Yamato to give her a little thumbs up.

"Guess it takes a bit more than a train crash to take us out of it," Yang grinned as they focused on the remaining two Deathstalkers. Nero charged the one closest to the front, pushing away its pincers as they tried to lash out at him. With a mighty yell, he swung upwards with both blades underneath its skull(?), making the upper half of its body real back into the air and exposing the unprotected belly of the beast. Revving up Red Queen to the max, he practically flew up into the air, becoming a tornado as he spun with both blades slashing into the large Grimm and causing its now segmented, flaming body parts to fall on the ground.

Ruby used her semblance and a few shots from Crescent Rose to propel herself above the pincer attacks of the second Deathstalker. Before it could strike with its stinger, she quickly shot in another direction to change her trajectory, causing the attack to miss and leaving the tail wide open for her to slice off the stinger. Nero, having just finished the first one, jumped over and grabbed the detached stinger, throwing it down into the bone plate covering the Deathstalker's body with enough force to make it stick into the creature. This left it open for a heavy finishing blow as Yang propelled herself into the air with Ember Celica and shot herself back down towards the target, landing a Semblance-Shotgun-Gravity assisted mega punch straight on the head of the stinger, driving it completely through the body of the last Grimm.

"That was totally awesome!" Ruby shouted as Yang and a DT-less Nero walked up with Weiss, Blake, and V regrouping with them as well, "We need to give that combo attack a name! How about, Slam Dunk!"

"Sounds great," Nero grinned and pointed to another group of Grimm, "But right now, we got some more baddies to take care of."

"Alright! Team RWBY and Team VN duo attack!" Ruby exclaimed. As the two teams readied themselves for combat, and unexpected event occurred as the Grimm they were about to attack were simply flung to the side.

"What?" Nero asked, confused.

"Uh...that was anticlimactic," Yang said. The entire group felt a chill go down their spines; it was one that only occurred when a certain angry teacher was bearing down on some unfortunate person or thing.

True to their intuition, Glynda Goodwitch was _pissed_. She angrily power walked down the street, flinging any approaching Grimm into oblivion if they dared attack. Finally, she reached the large hole in the street. With a wave of her riding crop, the pieces of debris that had once formed the street flew back into place, patching the hole and sealing the remaining Grimm inside.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

"Well, I guess we did it," Yang said.

Teams RWBY and VN and Zwei were sitting on the edge of Beacon's lending platform, looking out at the city of Vale in the distance.

"Damn straight we did," Nero said.

"If we don't get extra credit for this, I will be _seriously _disappointed," Weiss complained. Griffon appeared on V's shoulder, commenting, "Look Ice Queen, a huge fuckin' snake destroyed a bakery. That don't sound like extra credit to me."

Zwei yipped at Griffon and attempted to hop at him, prompting him to shout, "HEY! Get the fuck away from my you stupid dog!"

Zwei paid the insult no heed, and in the next instant, Griffon disappeared to escape death by slobbery corgi adorableness.

Nero groaned and looked over to Ruby, "And now I have to find _another _place to take you for cookies. Which will probably be harder because I destroyed a second bakery be throwing that Deathstalker..."

"W-well, that's okay. It's not like Vale only has one bakery," she chuckled and waved off his concern, making him grin a bit.

"We also didn't solve everything," Blake pointed out, "We don't know why they did this or what those demons V and Nero found were for. And a lot of civilians got hurt, too."

"Given your reading, Blake, I believe you know not every story has such a happy ending," V responded.

"We did take care of a lot of dangerous people," Weiss shrugged her shoulders, "And I think that's something we should all be pretty proud of."

Ruby cheered, "Yeah! And if anyone tries something like this again, we'll be there to stop them."

Yang flopped backwards with Zwei copying the motion as she unenthusiastically added, "Yay, teamwork, camaraderie, good guys, go team, alright, good job...so, what now?"

"I'd say training because the tournament is right around the corner, _but_ I think we got that covered," Weiss answered.

"So..." Blake trailed off without an answer.

"Um...time for bed?" Ruby suggested.

"Oh yeah."

"Definitely."

"I'm going to pass out for a few hours."

Everyone voiced their agreement as they began to stand up.

"I feel like I could sleep forever," Yang groaned.

"That's called a coma, Yang," Nero commented, "Coma's are bad."

"Oh shut up, Deadweight."

"Are you kidding me?!" Nero shouted as everyone else began to laugh, "I knew we shouldn't have told you about that stupid nickname!"

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

Ozpin aloofly stared out of the window in his office as a voice from his monitor called for his attention.

"Ozpin!" one of the figures on the video call shouted. The headmaster finally turned around and came back to the conversation.

"Yes, councilman?"

"You've left us no choice!" the person who demanded his attention reprimanded, "The Vytal Festival tournament cannot be broadcast, let alone held, if we are unable to ensure the safety of the citizens."

Ozpin remained stoic, sipping from his coffee cup as he continued, "Ahem...therefore, we have reached out to the Atlas Council and together have decided that the best action is to appoint General Ironwood as head of security for the event."

"Thank you, Councilman," Ironwood's visage on the video call took up the majority of the screen now, "Our Kingdom is happy to lend as many troops as it takes to ensure that the event runs smoothly and safely as possible."

"And we thank you, General."

Ozpin simply said "Will that be all?

"For now," the Councilman confirmed before warning, "After this festival comes to a close, however, we are going to have a serious discussion about your position at Beacon Academy. General Ironwood's reports over the last few weeks have left us somewhat...concerned. I am sure you understand."

As the council men's video feed vanished, Ironwood and Ozpin stared at each other for a few moments, completely silent until Ironwood finally spoke.

"This is the right move, Ozpin. I promise, I will keep our people safe, you have to trust me.

Ironwood's feed disappeared as well, perfectly timed as the doors to Ozpin's office opened to reveal a certain Demon Hunter strutting into the room. The Headmaster grew a little tense.

"So Oz, what did you want me here for?" Dante asked, joking, "I got a perfect pizza waiting for me back in my room, so if we could make this quick, my stomach would appreciate it."

Ozpin sighed, "Your report was a bit...concerning...Dante. I simply wished to discuss a few parts of it with you."

Dante's visage became a little more drawn. He crossed his arms and straightened his back a little, indicating he was paying attention.

"Let's start with the reactions of Mr. Blake and Mr. Angelo to the Yamato..."

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

Meanwhile, three certain "students" were gathered on a rooftop in Vale near the spot of the breach earlier.

"All in all, I call today a success," Cinder concluded.

"Those stupid kids really made a mess of things," Emerald shook her head.

Mercury agreed, pointing out, "Yeah. A lot of Faunus didn't make it out the tunnels. You still think the White Fang's gonna listen to us? And what about that Nero kid? He's got the Yamato now, and we didn't plan for that."

"You can stop worrying so much," a new voice added, causing the three of them to turn to a newcomer with red and black hair in a black jacket and a White Fang mask.

"The White Fang will listen for me," Adam said as he rested his hand on his katana, "As for the Yamato...

**"Leave that to me."**

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

V walked out of the dorm building. It was a bit late, but the sun hadn't set yet. Most of the others had already turned in for the night, but he still had one last thing to do.

With a small sigh, he reached into his pocket and drew out his Scroll, turning it on. He dialed a number, but hesitated before pressing the "call" button. Rather than putting away the Scroll without calling as he had before, he drove tapped the button and brought the device to his ear.

The device rang once.

Twice.

Then a sound as the call was answered.

"William Blake speaking," a voice answered.

V's breath hitches for a moment. What should he say?

"Victor, is that you?" the voice on the other end called, probably recognizing the number.

V's hand's shook. He hadn't called in so long. How was he supposed to start this conversation?

Finally, he swallowed his fears and took a deep breath and said the first thing that came to mind.

"Hey dad..."

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

**Aaaaaand that's Volume 2! I'll start working on Volume 3 soon, but I won't give a concrete release date yet. Hope you guys enjoyed.**

**If anyone was confused by William Blake, he's basically an OC in this story that will share the name of the poet from real life. In the RWBY universe, the character is V's adopted father (he named V "Victor," as has been referenced before in these first two books). He wrote basically any poetry V loves to quote. More shit will be explained down the line about V's unknown past before Will took him in and about Will himself since I don't want to give too much away.**

**Anyway, I'll see all you beautiful people later. Have a happy and safe spook night!**


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